North and South
honky-tonk angels
dressed in white, living
on the wild side, sing
out as they fly overhead.
A biannual performance,
carefully choreographed,
victorious.
Nobody blames them.
God didn’t make them.
They know their lines.
I wish I knew mine.
This poem references the 1952 song It wasn’t God who made Honky Tonk Angels, written by J.D “Jay Miller” and performed by Kitty Wells
not drowning
early in the days of us
I saw hurtling towards me
a mountain wave, the darkest
of greys with nothing to do but
fight for air as it overwhelmed me
I told you of my dream
of my struggle to breathe
Now I would let your wave
take me.
Helix
It is the time in-between
when we step onto the boardwalk
your arm around my waist
weaving through the rushes and reeds
whispering their false water —
we follow the petrified river to where
it feeds the loch, and the kelpies rise
from foam wild against
the darkening sky, one frozen
in silent scream against the wind as if
to swallow the swallowing night, the other
watches me
as we draw closer
as we draw closer
I have no fear these spirits will drag me to an airless
death, have no awareness of the danger
of the one who brought me here
whose other form I have yet to see
____________
Lisa J Coates is a musician, writer, and stage director. She has poems in Southbank Poetry
Magazine, Dear Reader, Levatio, Northern Gravy and is mentored by Helen Mort. A
classically trained mezzo-soprano, she has performed internationally in opera and
contemporary music, recorded commercially, performed live on television and radio.