Ken Bolton / September Poems / 6.


6 (Let me)


Fabulous & homely—
on the balcony ledge
in modelling clay
Anna’s red stag
two inches tall
sits & leans slightly
as if drunk
against a tiny classical
head, the same size,
made from
plaster-coloured
modelling clay—its
mock-classical,
‘conventional’, modelled
hair—a pineapple pattern—
of tight curls. The deer’s
back legs have collapsed,
comically,
so that it seems to sit down
& lean into & nuzzle
the sculpted head—to cheer it,
or to seek reassurance
against its own fears. Like
a toy from a cereal packet,
& one 2000 years old

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