Friday 1 February 2019

poem | No Holds Barred










Tangerine Press proudly presents
Number #5 in the Underground Poems series
'No Holds Barred' by Salena Godden 
 a new and previously unpublished poem 
released Friday February 1st 2019







Indigo printed onto heavyweight natural 
archival paper, limited edition, poetry broadside, signed, numbered, suitable for framing and available from today








No Holds Barred


We're outside a pub
and she's yelling
telling me to
get back on my boat

my friends say ignore her
and she's just racist
but I put down my rum
and walk over and ask her
do you need a hug?

I stand with open arms
as wide as a map of the world
she bursts into tears
and I hold her for a while

my jacket gets stained
in the orange foundation
she wears to tan her face
my lapels are streaked 
with black mascara

the pub is rumbling 
under the mad full moon
as the ripping spring tide 
crashes this green island's shore

old souls sailed
my heart is a boat 
my ancestors longships
my grandmothers Windrush 
the rubber dinghies sunk without trace



(c) Salena Godden / London / 2019







***

Meet the new generation of female poets breaking boundaries in 2019








No comments:

Post a Comment