Mid-June Selfie in the Hills
Wind bends the nettles and I
turn the phone cam on myself
to watch rain gutter off my hood
and down my nose
hair drenched to points
sticks to one cheek
I look in my eyes to see
doubt, of course
while cracked earth gulps all
the droplets sky
shakes loose and a wet bee
crawls in the cave of a foxglove
I breathe wet soil, wet
grass and also, faintly
something dead. A sign
handwritten, badly spelt
on the farmyard gate, to ask me
not to walk the path just now
seems deeply lonely. Rain
while I’m outside, is company.
Jean Atkin‘s new collection is How Time is in Fields (IDP, May 2019). Her poetry has featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Ramblings’ with Claire Balding, and recent work appears in The Rialto, Magma, The Moth, Lighthouse and Agenda. In 2019 she was Troubadour of the Hills for Ledbury Poetry Festival, and BBC National Poetry Day Poet for Shropshire. www.jeanatkin.com
new boots and pantisocracies 