Grandma has sewn thunder into
the seams of my wedding gown.
“Honeymoon will go down a storm” she said
as she bites out a porcelain grin
nimble fingers thimbled silver
swiftly stitching stars.
The garment is complete now,
fishtail sleek and gleams
in shoals of seed-pearl sheen
but my earth-wanton flesh resists:
it is like kneading Stonehenge into
streams of creaming silk
like sliding sand-dunes in to salmon skin.
Oceans seethe
until I am sheathed.
Tides heave when I breathe in
for Grandma has voodooed storm-at-sea
contained within the lightning flash of zip -
and I am a mermaid now, veiled in myth
in a vessel that sails into nuptial mist
with sea-salt lips Love’s tides have kissed.
I will spill down the aisle like uncurdling
milk from the moon.
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LUCY LEPCHANI is a committed poetry activist, working as a ‘Writer in Education,’ a committee member of a community poetry network, and recently, combining poetry with experimental theatre. Based in Devon in the UK, she has exhibited her work in visual media, performs regularly, and is published occasionally. Her first anthology awaits birth.
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