Tessa Berring
Embrace Me
Skin is wipe clean
and my jeans fit well
and once I wrote
about my dream
with men in it
all cotton wool heads!
I chopped them off
of course
which was bloody
like tampons
and my hands stank
of dead petunia.
It was a good story
nuanced and delicate
someone said
though they might not
have meant it.
It's a relief about skin
being easy to wipe
and it's good having jeans
all over my legs.
I like lean words
you know, like 'spirit'
and lightly placed
unspeakable things.
Close
When I wake I sometimes
catch a scent of myself
sweat and hard butter
and I sometimes
buy liquorice cigarette papers
for some personal nostalgia.
Where are those pale red shoes?
A dream can be smeared
with indelible stains
and rage can be soft
as a smoke screen.
Don't breathe!
The bedroom door is open,
carpet like brown meringue
dry cinnamon, old moth
I'll pretend I'm not here
am I close? Is this right?
Chairs
The box has five pairs
of scissors in it.
I must not lose them
on a journey
I don't believe in.
There is a yellow
rainbow
that can never
be a chimney
and an ordinary boy
is missing
(not a ghost
he is a little bit pirate).
This room is so soft
I could cut it
down the middle
five or seven times
Chairs can be
such solemn objects
(am I crying?)
Someone once said
'be jollier
be like a warm lap'
I'll never forget that.
Crow
Today is a horrible day
and now your arms
are covered
in vinegar, of all things.
Remember how I used
to wear your clothes
because I liked stripes
and wanted
to be you sometimes
or at least not me
for a sunny afternoon
in the fields?
I still love
the shriek of crows
occasional helicopters
grass and skylarks.
Fields simmer with violence
you'd say
and I'd not believe you
but be terrified.
I'll go back sometime
and the sky might
be black, or it might
be blue, or I might not notice.
Love
Marzipan!
She used to say indoor
snails taste of marzipan
and her nipples taste
of marzipan, and her tongue
and the small of her back.
She used to say this
because she longed
to be an almond
a huge hollow almond
full of upright Madonnas
all praying for love
and unimaginable purity.
Tessa Berring is an artist and writer based in Edinburgh. Her work appears in a variety of magazines including Zarf, (in collaboration with Kathrine Sowerby) The Rialto and Rabbit Catastrophe Review. A pamphlet, 'Cut Glass and No Flowers' was published in 2017 by Dancing Girl Press. She is also 1/12 of 12, an online writing collective of women poets living in Scotland.