When the news came,
battering my door down,
stalking my nights
so sleep withdrew
to some safe place,
and I unravelled in
the aimlessness of
this strange new world,
I ladled sugar
into cups of tea
I’d forget to drink,
stirred up whirlpools
of worry that sloshed
puddles like tears
for a life
that was sweeter,
and still my thoughts
get interrupted
by the gasping of hope
and the noise of a bird,
singing.
…………..
Caroline is originally from Northern Ireland, now living by the sea in Ayrshire. Her poems have been published widely in the UK and in Ireland and the U.S. She won the 2019 Waterways Storymaking Festival Award, Imprint Writing Award and the Beyond Borders Round III competition and was long-listed for the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year.