Elizabeth Welsh


Night visitor

he comes at dusk / when the soil shallows out / & rain makes broad strokes with the warm earth / or John has left a tap drooling / a blush mushroom sprouts / though we didn’t plant any that squalling spring / he pulses through / sensing the hook of breath / the tip of his tail comes last / panning the soft peat below his claws / patterning his position, his existence / a gold-miner / slowly easing pins from mounted insects / & placing them in a semi-circle at my bare toes / he chirps, chirrips, pips, porks / I imagine him magnified four-fold, riding the earth / spades humping portentously / as crickets’ backs are crucified

Elizabeth Welsh is an academic editor, originally from New Zealand and currently living in South London. Her poetry has been published in a number of print and online magazines, including 14 Magazine, Abridged, Alice Blue Review, The Prose Poem Project, Ranfurly Review, Corium, Southbank Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Shot Glass Journal & Blackmail Press. She is currently working on a chapter to be published in a collection on Katherine Mansfield and is a doctoral scholar.
 
 
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