Poem
Greta Stoddart
Lamb
Lamb
Lamb
The crows were blackcoming to and to it
and the dog barking was black
and the trees standing
in a row behind it were black-
trunked black-branched
and a black plastic bag
hung torn inside
the black spaces
and the puddles were black
with mud and ice
and the leaves were black
and the lamb
the crows and the dog
wanted so badly,
the lamb with its
small white splintered
hull of a chest
sticking out so
emptily to the wind
you could almost hear
in the bony tines a tune,
the lamb
was the dead
this early spring
the dead centre of everything
© 2014, Greta Stoddart
Greta Stoddart
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1966)
Greta Stoddart is a subtle, surprising poet whose work seems to hinge on those moments when everything might just change. Her first book came out in 2001 and established her reputation, with its beautifully sensual, uncomfortable poems about relationships, sexuality and the interior life. In 2005 she was named in Mslexia magazine’s list of the top ten contemporary women poets. She trained in th...
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Poems of Greta Stoddart
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Lamb
The crows were blackcoming to and to it
and the dog barking was black
and the trees standing
in a row behind it were black-
trunked black-branched
and a black plastic bag
hung torn inside
the black spaces
and the puddles were black
with mud and ice
and the leaves were black
and the lamb
the crows and the dog
wanted so badly,
the lamb with its
small white splintered
hull of a chest
sticking out so
emptily to the wind
you could almost hear
in the bony tines a tune,
the lamb
was the dead
this early spring
the dead centre of everything
Lamb
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