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Marie Little
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the poet
Living near fields and dreaming of the sea, Marie Little has published poetry and flash fiction with Acumen, Ink Sweat & Tears, Black Bough Poetry, Retreat West and many others. She enjoys unpretentious poems, twisty flash and the challenge of a writing prompt. Marie is co-creator of The Swadlincote Festival of Words, and runs writing groups for adults and children. She's best known for her children’s poetry as Attie Lime, and her debut children’s collection is Blue Jelly and Strawberries.
the poems
In the Sunday Garden
Club Hut with Dad
Underarmed up onto
the bench beside you
pondering your
bad back, too much
flesh above my knees
I absorb the morning like
a dry seed.
You chat easy with customers
most already friends
hand them smiles in
paper bags
forget the price of things.
I play shop with the black iron
weighing scales, palming the
cold weights, testing the brass
bowls for honesty.
You hand me boiled sweets,
tidy jars, curl twine,
lift the stink on the fish, blood and bone bin
to make us squirm, laughing.
I measure myself carefully
in scoops.
Dusk
Six o'clock draws its curtains,
twists the dial on chemicals keeping me
sunny. The mood over the field is indigo
blue, heavy with sooty clouds in waiting. I
have no need of litmus paper. I know my score.
Bottles in rows wink at me, each emptied to a
different level, each a slightly different chime in
the tune of dusk. I shun them all, flick
the kettle on. Slide something herby, caffeine-free
from a purple box, steep it so long it might
understand. Drink it in sips, watch the soot spread.
Later the bottles will sing.
Parents, 1982
She is milk of magnesia,
camphorated oil
(warm to the touch).
She is petroleum jelly,
sodium bicarbonate,
cream of tartar.
He is the berry-stained wooden spoon
as long as my arm, the
sticky muslin, dripping.
He is the jam-saucer, nestled
in the ice box.
He is pectin,
like quiet magic.
Publishing credits
In the Sunday Garden Club Hut with Dad:
Ink, Sweat & Tears (March 2022)
Dusk: Acumen (No. 103)
Parents, 1982: Molecules Unlimited Anthology