Mandy Baldwin

One day, when I am very old
This hurt will be forgotten.
I’ll quietly, carefully, walk through the town
Button my coat against the cold
...

When I was a child the garden burst with marigolds.
Pungent tomatoes climbed the walls in the dusty sun
And new cut grass with daisies lying slaughtered
And ponds with drowning fan-tails and proud peonies
...

Naomi walked with me in the winter
Along a beach that was bleak and wide.
Like broken dolls propped up together
I was strong with her at my side.
...

In my mind I’m going home
Down long green lanes by an empty sea
To an old stone house, with lilac trees
And my Prudy-dog, to welcome me.
...

I was sitting by the water
When they told me it was ending
And the estuary birds flew over - crying, always crying, as I did then.
Then I knew that hope was gone
...

Your heartbeat that day.
Strange how I remember that.
Oh, I also bring to mind your eyes
And your hands I thought so beautiful
...

You with the sunset in your hair
And the slanting shadows from the hazel hedge
And the bats, flitting in the evening air
And the damp green stones by the waters edge.
...

It’s a fine irony, that’s all I can say.
Just as you’ve got yourself straight between the ears
You find those ears are attached to a structure that’s dropped six inches.
Don’t debate the point; you know it’s true:
...

There are unused numbers on my phone.
I don’t know why I keep them there when I will never call.
To dial them would be to call the time I was a daughter.
In my mind’s eye they go along with boxes left unopened
...

We, the survivors, salute you.
We stand, divided by the miles, having lived through half a century
Seen unimaginable changes, feared many which have never happened
Been taken unawares by others.
...

Your eyes, your eyes are with me still in my mind’s eye.
Smiling at me, and as I watched,
laughing with friends at jokes that I don’t understand.
And your hand.
...

The soul never stops being sixteen.
You can tie it down and smother it but still
There will be magic in the scented night, and love
...

Leave me alone now, please.
No more midnight calls and murmured declarations
No more long, hand-holding talks as if we’ll share tomorrow.
Since there is silence after each
...

It's quieter now, and the old cats, once kittens
Can sleep in the sun, remembering, as I do.
But yesterday was now, once, and
It wasn't the good old days, then.
...

She gave him his life in a welter of pain
in the pit of a cold March night.
The wind blew cold so the fire was lit
and they lay there, all naked and white
...

Thanks for all the lessons learned from you,
For eyes that said I knew it all, and trusted.
For times when there was magic in a Christmas tree
And love that didn’t judge, and lasted.
...

She dances alone in the kitchen
where morning spills light on the floor
and the radio plays all those bright yesterdays
that will never be hers, any more.
...

English Summer
In a place of rich perfection which I love
I close my eyes and feel a distant magnet tug.
And it’s small things which follow me:
...

Now that you are gone, and there’s no-one to tell me I look pretty
No desire to please, to drive me to revamp my hair or buy new clothes
Will I be a mad old woman grown fat on tea and biscuits
(Shared with my small dog - a crumb for the budgie - and milk in
...