A Poem by Stuart Henson

She wore

‘a hat as big as a wagon wheel
on which there was room for all manner of things’
pom-poms the size of puffballs, sunflower plates
and pumpkins, owls’ eggs, bows of acetate…

A heart so great that it embraced the multitudes
of yellow leaves the east winds shake.
I should have written novels that took place
among the populations in her shadowed face.

A hand so lightly-laid that it would make
blessings from simple gestures like a saint’s.
Yet she was mortal and her breath would shape
ghosts under street-lamps as the hours escaped.

Where she might hang that hat chance would dictate.
Her entrances were enigmatic, her departures late.

Stuart Henson's pamphlet A Handful of Wasps was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year Award 2023-24 and published by Shoestring Press last year.  His most recent full collection is Beautiful Monsters (Shoestring, 2022).