Relax—Don’t Do It
Today a woman went mad in the supermarket / it could have happened anywhere
really / the only surprising thing was / it had taken her so long / to despair
she licked her lips by the frozen fish / tasting all the sweat / and tears / and lost
oceans / so she became as elemental as the tilt of the earth
unfurling amongst the pots of pears / she was an orphaned negative / grown in
Argentina / packed in Thailand / and found on a Sainsbury’s shelf in Aberdare
in the concrete car park / all the barren trees / fenced in and wound in fairy lights /
twinkled like the dying stars / as she was wound in blankets / and told to just relax
Gathering The Light
From time to time / words and monsters come along at dark / some wrench me from my
bed / so I can empty the nub of this thing / the grit of this living / rubbed by night’s
strange fingers / and tame them into a poem / it feels pure / like a chrysanthemum
gathering light / or eating an orange in the shower
Most other times / when the sun lifts her skirt / words sift through my fingers / like trying
to hold sunlight / and no amount of busting can help make them stick / I can walk or run
alongside the past / so an apparition of a verse appears upon my lids / like my old lover’s
face / I can chase after it with hard heels / but I know just like that love it will not be
caught.
Adele Evershed is an early years educator and writer. She was born in Wales and has lived in Hong Kong and Singapore before settling in Connecticut. Her prose and poetry has been published in a number of online and print journals such as Every Day Fiction, Free Flash Fiction, LEON Literary Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, High Shelf, Hole In The Head Review, Monday Night Lit, Eclectica Magazine, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Wales Haiku Journal, Shot Glass Journal, Sad Girls Club and Green Ink Poetry among others. Adele has recently been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize for poetry and the Staunch Prize for flash fiction, an international award for thrillers without violence to women. Visit her website @thelithag.com