Name: Carole Nelson Phillips
country : New Zealand
Carole returns with works as stirring and powerful as ever - not afraid to push her audience toward unexplored landscapes with works that stand up and are counted.
Needless to say we here at BMP love her...
- Editors Blackmail Press
fathers daughter
when I asked
your father to leave
he took a cardboard
box of clothes
his stash & needles
& a choice of various beds
I started working
weekends
at the local pub
some nights I'd pack
your pink bag,
leave you with the sitter
to wait for your father
to come
you'd be there when
I came home at midnight
this week you phoned
twice, said you'd come
by train, said you were
missing your child,
and knew how
your father must have felt
we still haven't seen you
and I'm pleased
the child is younger
than you were
& doesn't really know
who you are
'P' - I'm not afraid to say its name
we communicate
through lawyers
social services
I've joined
grandparents
raising grandchildren
I'm not the only one
tired & angry
my future of words
& clay, my freedom
are gone now
I am no longer
who I was
the child walks
on sure feet
today I took her
into my neglected garden
showed her violets
nasturtiums
thorns to be avoided
the rose you always
said would be your
wedding bouquet
thrives but I don't
pick its blooms
just weed around
its base
she squats beside me
intent on my task
her small hand
on my shoulder
this new beginning
listening to her grow
watching for sounds
I understand
her language
word reaches me
of the depth of
your addiction
your associations
at night in bed
I see the shape
position of
your fingers on
cello strings
your half widows peak
the shape of your mouth
guilt & sorrow
show themselves
in the grey beneath
my blood red hair
I will not
let this child go
carole nelson phillips
new zealand
