mussels in a hollandaise sauce
with coal oil, pork fat croutons,
dashi
mussels sit squat in the dark bowl
squat in the throat squat
in pale yellow meadow green
the addition of coal oil gives the dish
an unusual robust flavour
the addition of coal oil gives the family
rough heritage dirty hands mucky faces
lungs that cough
black lacework
during the late 19th and most
of the 20th century Armthorpe was known
for its coal mining; the pit Markham Main
the village rises men kiss their sleepy wives
over the tea kettle look in on the children
tossing in bed leave the house pass
fields of lowing cows in the dawn light
during the miners' strike only 34 of Armthorpe's
1300 miners went back to work
the excavation work is backbreaking
men with legs like tree trunks
roots in the earth roots
in the village muscles tight and taut
ache at night
when they retire these giants turn human
shrinking under the bright sunlight
three people from the village of Armthorpe
have died of vCJD, the human form
of mad cow disease, two who lived
on the same street
i’m 11 after opening our presents
we visit my grandparents my uncle
lays on a single bed in the front room
by the christmas tree lit up like a rainbow
curtains wide open
he can’t eat
but screams
the whole way through
our family’s christmas dinner
his cracker sits unopened
the third victim, Adrian Hodgkinson, 24,
lived in Harrogate, dying in 1997
he spent every weekend between 1972
and 1986 at his grandmother's house
in Armthorpe eating Sunday dinner
for the last few months of my uncle’s life
he couldn’t walk
his muscles
wasted
away
______________
Jem Henderson (she/they) is a genderqueer poet from Leeds. They have recently won a Creative Future award for underrepresented writers. an othered mother, their first pamphlet came out July 2022 from Nine Pens. Another book, Genderfux came out in February 2022.