All This And More Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Madelina's more than two sharp eyes,
The shadows set in the cheek bones
Her hair's like seaweed
Swept by the tides of life
what's an average person?
Fading photos pinned against a wall?

This lady in her time's
Been cunning as a southern snake,
Striking off the innocuous necks of chickens
Her alligator skin shrugs off the
Withers of ageing.

She might have been anything,
But for her womb, her womanhood

Success was an illusion, the jerky cries of lovers
Ephemera, incidents between a domestic chair and the bed

She could have been the stuff of magazines
What of it? she seems to challenge
Life near the end's worth less than a hill of beans