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Judith Allnatt writes poetry and fiction and lectures in creative writing. Her novel A Mile of River was chosen as Book of the Month by Simon Mayo’s book panel on Radio 5 Live. Judith is currently working on a second novel for Transworld.
‘I don’t believe in love,’
the last girl says.
Teacher’s hand pauses
in its sweep across a poem.
A sonnet gathered in a duster,
dissolves back to white-board,
leaves a smell of acid drops.
Words spill like milk
it’s no good crying after.
How promises miscarry,
end in a needle’s prick
and bloodied sheets,
murmurs in class
hand-smothered laughter.
Love has laid his thumb-prints
underneath her eyes
smudging grey half-moons,
has softly clung around her neck
and battened there. Whey-faced,
sucked pale by French kisses,
she takes the homework;
‘My love is like a red, red rose’
New born from the copier,
still warm,
and goes.
Poem published: Roundyhouse, issue 17, ISSN1467-145 X
Publications: A Mile of River (hardback), Transworld (Doubleday). ISBN 9780385613064. £14.99.
Copyright© of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet
