Rebekah Miron

Purple Girl, 14

I could never stop it from happening.
Walking home at midnight, the fight
curled tight in my little fist. Another after
dark, concrete break, sticky scalp and
chest ache, kind of ambush. The boys
liked it when my lips split, or shook.
Pushed my head against the wet street
until the skull weeds gave out and
took me away.

Then get up and go home, a
troubled gust, shaking the leaves up
with my wet shoelaces. Pacing at
my front door, smokey coat and
soft head sore beneath my hood.
Inside now, “You’re late home?”
A belly twist, hurt and shift, the
smallest moan escapes my lips – so I?
Shut them tight. All night I shake.
But shut them tight.

 

 

Babysitting

 

I

I saw it. A dare. A flicker pass.
Between an eyelash and the wide bulb
steady open then close, sleepy and bold
in the dim night of your bedroom –
‘Go to sleep now, please’.

‘Thora, please do as you’re told’.

II

Baby with an ocean in mind, young
elemental, you’d cry all the time. Little hunting
hands in your howl, took stairs
two by two, broke me down always
racing up to find you. Lips sound
M and U and M.               (and you wait).
My own lips part for words without shape –

so silence. A forehead kiss. Nothing more than this.

III

Later I wish for kid tears, years
after wish for pyjama panic. Your cheeks
thick and pink, baby face all rage, a
strike for midnight. Then, little sea heart moored
up to the bedpost, born for morning.
Wish at fifteen you’d not grown silent,
new purple girl, spooled up in your grief
young thug in a rug til you slept.

Wished again for words to evade the                       between us, that flicker pass, but none –

                                              so silence. A forehead kiss. Nothing more than this.

 

RebekahMiron
Rebekah Miron is a Creative Writing Masters student at the University of Cambridge. She was Editor of The Mays Anthology XXIV, Editor for Cambridge Creatives in 2016 and also a Junior Editor at Rainy Fiction in 2014, previously led by poetry collective Thirteen Pages. Her creative work has been published by The Mays XXIII, The Cadaverine, Miracle E-Zine, INK, Camverse, Notes and featured onstage at The Junction Theatre