victoria spires

Anatif (Self portrait in shower drain cover)

 

Seen from this angle, the path

up through the rockface grows slippery,

indistinct,

through a tidal steam

 

and I am rockpool-wet, gooseneck clench

and quiver

in painterly shades

that I want to be pretty:

 

the blueish swell just visible

inside the aperture;

its fine pink fringing, pearlescent

plates and dimples

 

that I step over in the makeshift mirror

to dry myself. Can something

elemental be prized

or be pretty? Perhaps instead

 

a still-life: percebe, dressed

in sweet and brine, the gleam of the pan

in the background; a napkin square

with which to clean

your mouth.

 

 

anatif - gooseneck barnacle

percebes - Spanish/Basque delicacy

 

Victoria Spires’ work has been published widely, including in The London Magazine, iamb, The Interpreter’s House, Atrium, After… Poetry and Carmen et Error. She has placed in various prizes, including Third in the Rialto Nature and Place Competition, and Winner of the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize. Her pamphlet Soi-même is available from Salo Press.