Penelope Shuttle

Yoshinaga
 
 
Yoshinaga arrived on time,
took off his deerskin cap,
set it on the table.  
I asked if he was an only child.
All at once he began talking
about green mountains,
‘the braver part of me’,
shrines he had visited in his youth.
The girl brought in a tall cream-glazed jug 
patterned with leaves, flowers 
and verses in the old style.
We toasted our friends, real and imaginary.
Yoshinaga spoke of Siberia, Brazil
and other places.
How happy we were then.
 
 
*
 
 
nine years old
 
 
child from far-time
scribbles only on rough paper    not Basildon Bond
 
thinks by shapes drawn 
in delicate-colour inks Hiroshige gives her
 
far-time child sleeps where sleep tells her to
speaks in voices you never hear nowadays 
 
takes her vows in a self-injuring garment
because the world told her she must
 
hellhound winter sinks her down
deep under the cloudy wi-fi that knows everything
 
her head feels heavy heavy heavy –
a yellow Colas track monitor stomping the railyard
 
while another bonny child    not her    joshes away 
through the field gate       dances round the may tree 
 
child from far time likes dusty pre-war rooms    
presses herself up against the French windows 
 
so tightly netted they can’t breathe in or even out 
to watch Bovingdon’s cows grazing the M25
 
snarly-eyed child bangs her way
through all twelve confessional doors 
 
bobs away from us    mer-child in the silvery Thames
if you like      though it’s plain to see     you don’t
 
 
*
 
 
she wants to be famous, so
 
 
she hopscotches by post-box and fire hydrant
skims past die-young hoodie-wearing overlords
 
squeezes through a prickle hedge like a kid goat from the Kasbah
scooching into the mistletoe milk-light of the playground
 
she scatter-brains along by the chemist 
where the vineyard used to be
 
hurdling the zebra crossing 
not looking right or left         little desperado
 
skedaddling past the stinkard butchery
half-orphan bolting between beehive and cloister:
 
our childie careens down the hill, 
scarlet fever or a hobbled filly let loose    that’s her
 
quick slurp from the drinking fountain
iron-cold potion a tongue-twister indeed:
 
she power-walks with the pylon’s stride across the county
to the exact spot where gentle dukes descend out of Aragon,
 
races for her life into Windsor Castle 
grabs the Queen’s golden scissors
 
snips away the launch of ships
and the royal baby-heir’s blueblood birth-cord
 
 
*
 
 
FAQ 
 
 
mum mum
can you see that wolf?
no over there
mum what’s your favourite animal? 
mine’s leopard but he’s lonely
mum would you rather swim with a shark or a crocodile?
would you rather be a lion or a mousie?
mum mum why does my cat have magic eyes?
are wolves gods?
can I have this?
why are tortoises slow?
are dogs real?
why is everyone cross?
what’s the nastiest thing you’ve ever eaten?
will a mousie come into our housie?
mum will jesus turn me into a little pig and eat me?
why don’t people have claws, like bears?
would you rather eat Toblerone or chips?
why can’t I breathe underwater?
what’s your biggest worry mum?
I wonder what would happen if I changed into a camel?
would I still have to go to school?
mum mum can I have a pony?
does the lamb know its own mother?
is the world real?
mum mum would you rather be an ant or a buffalo?

Father Lear
12 Father Lear
13 Orchard End, or The Laboratory of Continuous Effort
14 Beautifully done
15 Rome
16 Wallace
17 Big ships
18 Hearts by night
19 Kew Gardens, 1913
20 Hallam Street
21 Transparent
22 Self-portrait as Katharine of Aragon
23 Dog
25 The Lucidity (or Otherwise) of a Swan
26 Gardens where there’s no need for a garden
27 Uncommon Prayer
28 Wild Rose
29 Washing the Lips
30 Some had their mouths stopped with gold
33 Osterley Park Summertide Trees
34 1976
35 the colour rain in the lavender
36 Rue in Wine
37 The Half-guest
38 Verbs
39 Yoshinaga
40 Observed Phenomena and Fancied Correspondences
41 the opposite of night
42 thou twingest me therewith Beloved as doth a pair of tongs 
43 it came as if called
44 long-lost

Book of Lullabies
46 cockcrow
47 cradled in the roots of a great tree
48 homestead
49 the candle
50 three green gowns of silence
51 I feel sorry for the anchors, sorry for the piers,
52 Contemplative Promenade Experience
54 infancy of the weather
60 early 21st-century ice loss
61 the false child
62 written on a linden leaf
63 cunnikin
64 summoning the ferry from the shade of the willow
65 book of lullabies
70 all souls’ night

History of the Child
73 newefangel
74 own judge and jury
75 notes on her background
76 nine years old
77 child London of London
78 binding with briars, my joys and desires
79 in a strange land
80 Matty
81 her first-nation name is birthstone
82 who made thee?
83 child’s childhood
84 child tilts the planet sideways
85 school play 1957
87 simple question
88 she wants to be famous, so
89 sold her bed and lay on the straw
90 Old Pretender Doll
91 plane to Fargo 1959
92 Lucifer
93 wearing a tunic cut down from…
95 sleeping rough in class
96 frequent subject of Japanese art
97 valentine’s day
98 oh but
99 white road by the bombsite
100 FAQ
101 child as linden shield
102 she’s not the guest of honour
103 glad rag
104 memo to the child
105 La Pucelle
106 when she was the Queen of Maidens
107 st elmo’s chapel
108 down lullaby lane
109 what is trauma?
110 what is happiness?
111 willing sacrifice

little table
115 little table
 
123 Notes