local_library Something Quiet

by Alexander Majendie

Published in Issue No. 295 ~ December, 2021

A little sea throws itself

against the lower-storey windows of her mind’s lighthouse,

groaning, petulant, afraid of being ignored, abandoned,

looming up between her and some farther shore,

as jealous and possessive as a yearling,

Unwilling to share her,

Or to make concessions to such vague sensations

as the sense of losing something quiet in the clamour of the storm.

The waves lay siege,

But inside these four walls she is a mariner,

And she offers prayers to the small gods of the tempest,

Bartering with them for freedom, her eyes are closed,

Submarine hatches, sealed against unwelcome ingress.

 

 

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Alexander Majendie is a half-Scottish, half-English poet based in the South-West of England. His favourite poets include Marya Zaturenska and Edgar Allen Poe, and he is currently enjoying work by Maxine Kumin, Clark Ashton Smith, and a translation of Wislawa Szymborska. His work has appeared in The Moth.