Janet Budd Poems

Your flat familiar vowels curl my toes.
I nestle on the settee, hold my breath,
watch planets burst from embryonic glow.
I wonder at your wonder and feel blessed
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DEMETER MOURNING

The dust I breathe is anger from earth’s shell
It fights and bites inside my heaving chest.
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I dash to get to B & Q
By eleven
That’s the time
The opening of the temple
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LOVER, COME AND RISE BEFORE ME
BATHE ME, STIR ME WITH YOUR GLORY.
DRAW ME TO YOU, DRINK MY MEASURE.
LOVER, COME AND TAKE YOUR PLEASURE
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Today I’m lying in the dentist chair
Wondering how to seem relaxed, my scheme
Is to by thought transport myself elsewhere.
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I enfold her as if I hold in my hands
A diaphanous shawl woven loosely
From silken skeins of hope and fear. I feel
Strongly, she’s so much part of me. Obliviously
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November bomb-fires refuse to take light
Like sultry splutters of a lazy passion.
And drowsy hedgehogs under dead, damp wood
Dream snail’s trail filaments of kiss and touch.
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And butterflies do not land, they alight.
I know, I’ve had one land on me. So light
At first I didn’t notice she was there.
Her curled, unfurling wings disgorging bright.
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The storm falls on the tar like coloured glass
Bouncing. Shining rubber boots sheath small feet.
A tartan umbrella shields my head.
The drab school Mac makes my outfit complete.
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I was given a dancing gown,
woven by the dew drops just for me.
Each thread, it was untangled from a dream.
The warp and weft were loose. In between
...