A New Poem by Aline Page

by · February 1, 2022

Image by Antranias, Pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The phrase that became the title for this poem came up in Nigel Summerley’s recent two-part interview with Aline Page… And Aline almost immediately produced this…

 

COMPOSTING SHIT

Transforming, transplanting?

Entrenched fears,

Ideas stuffed there

Years ago, lying fallow

Beneath Snows of innocence.

Pretence that all’s well,

Softly, flakily faced, buffered

Yet harshly sculpted within,

Twisted and pinned, immobile,

Wanting to scream;

Break free, run, released

From harm’s way,

Able to stay in one place

Long enough to feel safe, rooted.

With a peaceful apple-core centre,

Rosy cheeked and hearted, behaving

‘normally’, acceptable in ‘thy sight’,

Not a transient, truculent, difficult ‘child’.

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Nigel Summerley

Nigel Summerley retired from The Oldie magazine to return to freelance journalism. He previously held executive staff jobs at the London Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Express before freelancing for 20 years for newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian and the ‘i’ paper, plus a wide range of magazines. He continues to write about music, travel and health, and blogs at www.nigel-summerley.blogspot.com.

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