the summer is warm;
i crack open nuts the colour of sticky bees
i will bake a pie for my father / hear it whistling in the oven
i will pick the lambs free of fleas
i will wash my ashen kneecaps each a sun-dried raisin
he says when was the last time we saw the trees
tomorrow i will be full of firm hands
which soon my hands will soon become
tomorrow i will be full of knots and pots and plans
tomorrow i will be the storybook girl weary and neat and good:
say when was the last time we both saw the sun
[pearly slats of light become her silence
and silence is forever becoming]
i will separate the peach seeds from each of their yellow husks:
a worthy dissection (see how much larger they are today)
i will scrape the shelves free of books
replace them with ornaments and picture frames and silly potted plants
father i will free your skin of hooks
when was the last time we saw the —–
and today i will make invisible conserves
from invisible scores of love letters
i will skim the plucked milk / sing a song to make it all better
Nabiha is an eighteen-year-old writer who lives in Lancashire. She was previously shortlisted for the 2022 BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University, is a first-prize winner of the Christopher Tower Poetry Competition with Oxford University, and is a Foyle Young Poet. She is also a recent winner of the Edinburgh 50-word flash fiction competition. She enjoys journal writing in her spare time.