Agoloso Presents - Atondido Stories Agoloso Presents - Mama Mada | Page 242

Mama Mada
Anna of the Fisheries by Maria Taylo r
Not for the hungry who enter the shop
leaving fingerprints on everything,
or for her uncle, her tutting boss,
will she scrub the fryer’s chrome
till it’s a mirror for her forced smile.
Not for salt & vinegar tears over chips,
for a labourer’s fish supper wrapped
in inky pages from a Daily Mail,
or for teddy boys in brothel creepers,
will she gather tips in a coffee jar.
Not for gossip with backcombed wives
will she wear her alchemist’s overalls.
Home is seven days away on a ship.
Anna drops slabs of cod into bubbling oil
and waits for batter to turn into gold.
In Love by Maria Taylo r
First, dream yourself into a mid-terrace
let flowers grow inside your head.
Rethink the kitchen, see a dining table
tangled with jasmine, petals over tired pine.
Where once you were arm-deep in sink grease
watch holy roses grow from a plughole
as swallowtails escape from a cutlery drawer
and fly up to a room, not quite your own.
Here are laelia, risen from an unwashed duvet
a mirror all dew, names written in breath.
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