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ALYS THORPE
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INDEX OF RETROSPECTIVE POETRY
where past and present interweave



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


EXPLANATION
many poems in the Scribble opus come out of conversations in the echo. They also come from local news headlines. This was one such 'throwaway verse' which came from a news item which explained that the department of Social Welfare had found no safer place for a child than the place which had already damaged her beyond belief.

'hair' was a word used by the former moderator and 'Queen of Scribble' Christine Schiff, in a challenge which seems not to have survived in my records.
 

 


 
  Headlines
 
 
 
 

       hair today, gone tomorrow
       perhaps I'm at the age,
       when
       pricked and spurred
               by love alarums
               and spooked by
       horror stories in the light of day
       it seems to me that more than leaves
       are falling, falling, more than tears
       fall from the faded eye.
 

       the edge of poetry will prickle
       through the scalp, wing through the flesh
       as we do read the edge of dread
       so bright and edgy in the business
       of the day, glance at a head line
               read these words
       'a six year old with gonhorrea is
               sent home to stay'

        then hair hang down
                at horror's loneliness
        demand the ancient rule,
                 the rite of grief,
        to tear out
        handfulls and with heavy fist
        to beat on breast
        bereft
        of all the beat of poesie
        and modern mind of pride.
 
 

        Alice Thorpe
          copyright
          27 June, 1997

 
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