THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS SELECTED IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST.
Smokes and siren
Vast valleys of mournful barren
Shrouded in black she walks
Caressing cold finger eyes of a hawk
From torn curtain he peaks
Wide eyed frail and meek
Chubby little fingers rosy little cheeks
Long gone like the life that reeks
Smokes and sirens
Vast valleys of mournful barren
In cold his dolly laid
Black like his innocence in the shade
In the overcast of clouds red
And the scarlet rivers that led
To smokes and siren
Vast valley of mournful barren
Shivering and quiet he lay
Shrouded in black as she sways
Savoring the souls ashore
In seas of greed that shook and roar
Shrouded in black she plays
Songs of the red river that lay
He sits still
Stiller than her still
the angels weep
of the innocence he leaks
of the years he had, of the years he lost
of the warmth of his mother
now buried in the frost
frost of the cold of greed
that roar shook and bleed
to the road that leads
smoke and siren
vast valley of mournful barren