The Word Bird

Mam is stranded on the rocks

surrounded by drunken mermaids

and even though she knows it’s wrong

she drinks down waves

Dad, well he’s on a boat

chasing the horizon

Copyright Sky Hawkins, 2018

I always felt on the outskirts

because their mother’s skirts weren’t

skirt enough to hide behind

Copyright Sky Hawkins, 2018

We heard staff in other homes didn’t hug

their kids. Something to do with health and

safety. Our staff did. We heard that Clavarine

House didn’t do hugs. I wasn’t going there.

Those hugs David gave me in the staff room,

well they were special, especially when he

slipped his tongue between my thighs. I treasured

those hugs kept them under my pillow so other

kids like Marie with her pretty fucking freckles

and her mermaid fucking hair couldn’t steal them. 

Copyright Sky Hawkins, 2017

Every place I arrived at, I unpacked
Selecting, creating, refining space
A tom cats spray, a magpie’s bling
Because matter matters

I plastered walls with posters, photos. Placed
books and trinkets with such precision, I’d
have known had you moved even one small thing
Because matter matters

These things I gathered were familiarity
These objects I carried were family
This teddy bear had been there consistently
Because matter matters

I suppose at least me mam warned me

‘Your stuffs in a black plastic bag in a back lane. It was evil possessed by a devil. No, your LP’s are still there ‘

Because matter matters

Copyright Sky Hawkins, 2020