Rebecca Watts

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Annie, with Starlings

Running on noise and velcro and diggers
and drop-offs and laundry and lost coats and pick-ups
and stories and bath-times and weekend wellies,
you don’t give a thought to the miscarriages.

At the end of the garden you toss the remains of a crumble
to the birds without hearing waste waste waste
and the cool smooth sides of the dish
feel nice, its emptiness.

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REBECCA WATTS is the author of two poetry collections, The Met Office Advises Caution (2016) and Red Gloves (2020), and editor of Elizabeth Jennings: New Selected Poems (2019), all published by Carcanet.