Tag: UK

The Watchers by Cathy Hollister

~ ONE ART ~ 1 Comment

The Watchers

I paused on the bank of the Thames,
eyes raised to St. Paul’s across the river,
sunset clouds billowed like smoke
escaping the steeple.

I imagined the watchers of St Paul,
volunteers filled the high rafters
protecting British pride from
falling flames
that would consume the spire

I praised the brave and selfless acts
of those who
from evensong to matins
extinguished the blazes
of the Blitz

Back home in Tennessee, the Volunteer state,
fear and rage shoot through safe havens
of neighborhood, school, park, church
a small, frightened child, crying for her mother

Alone, I can watch but not extinguish
the inferno in the streets of the land
of the free carry, free assault, free pain.

I live in America
on fire.

*

~ Author’s Note ~

St Paul’s watch formed in 1915 to protect the cathedral from bombing raids during the First World War. The Watch disbanded in 1918 but reformed in 1939 at the start of World War 2. A photo of St Paul’s surrounded by smoke became a symbol of “togetherness, survival, and suffering” for the British people.

*

Cathy Hollister is a poet from Tennessee. Her work has appeared in Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Eclectica, The Ekphrastic Review, and is the author of Seasoned Women, published by Poet’s Choice.

Two Poems by Mary Paterson

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We did not capture the bird

The bird bombed itself into the kitchen window,
repeated calamities against the glass – beak / blood /

beak / blood. As a result I cannot come to your party. I am too full
of elastic and stinging nettles. My arms are shot with feathers

out of sympathy for the cadaver, its neck stabbed backwards into its body,
its wings a broken protractor. There are reasons

the birds are throwing themselves away like this & I’m in charge
of none of them. My role is to witness

using almost obsolete technologies. Think of the man
who built a library of creature songs in California,

who lived long enough with water bottles and escalators
to see his tapes ingested by fire. Recently, I will not name things –

not robin, nor Mohammed, nor Olivia – because I hope
the unnamed may proliferate. Ask me how I know

about the Zayante band-winged grasshopper, its buzz
that sounds entirely like plastic melting.

*

Defences

He says, you must locate the heart
of the enemy. You must pour boiling water

onto their queen. You must watch the steam
worry the sunless morning. What a morning.

What a honey trap sticky with ants. He says,
probably the ants are farming the aphids.

Probably the ants have nested under the bath.
What a forest of rose-fists knocking

on the bathroom window. We refuse
to kill the ants because we believe

in the sanctity of bodies clambering
for a future. Because we know what we will

become. Let us cloister inside with vinegar.
Let us sign a petition. The petition

says, please: not me, please, please, not me.

*

Mary Paterson is a writer and curator based in London (UK). She writes mainly for performance, and her work has been performed around the world including with Live Art DK (Copenhagen), Wellcome Collection (London) & Arnolfini (Bristol). Her poetry has been published by Poetry Magazine, 3am Magazine, & Ambient Receiver, amongst others. Mary is the co-founder of ‘Something Other’: a platform for experimental writing and performance, running since 2014.