Flight by Ansuya Patel

She can haul boxes,

move houses, countries,

climb up ladders to paint

cornices, listen to friends’

yet she never asks for help.

When I press why?

She offers tea and cake,

shakes her head, gazing out

to the trees. She sighs

and trembles, a gazelle

that knows the wild can snap.

She stirs sugar in a trance.

I show her a painting of horses

thundering across a plain;

she’s back, a butterfly pinned

to the moment, never quite free.

_______

Ansuya was a joint winner of Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize in 2024. Her debut collection is out with Indigo Dreams Publishing. Her poems have been shortlisted for Bridport, Alpine, Aurora, highly commended at Erbacce. Appeared in Allegro, Artemesia, BlackinWhite, Broken Spine, Crowstep, Drawn to the Light, Gypsophila, Ink Sweat and Tears, Rattle and Renard.