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It is like something out of a painting by Hiëronymus Bosch by Anna Saunders

It is like something out of a painting by Hiëronymus Bosch

everyone who has just fallen in love,
and everyone who is heartbroken
here in the garden at the same time.

Those who are in love speak in petals,
break out of pink eggs like sheeny
birds, burst from the heads of flowers,
dusted with pollen.

Those who are in love are lavish as rococo gardens,
lofty as the arching vaults of gothic cathedrals.

All the weather is upon those who are in love
and the rain gleams.

The displaced butterflies
are come back to settle on those who are in love
and the blackbirds beat their wings as if in applause.

Those on the lawn who have lost love  
stand on nail points and knife blades

crawl out of ears or intestines
drop like buckets to the bottom of wells.

Those who are heartbroken  
flail their legs like dying flies
as black shells snap shut on them

and thrash their waxy limbs in bondage,
strapped to harps that will never play again.

---

Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox ( Indigo Dreams) and Ghosting for Beginners ( Indigo Dreams, Spring 2018) described by Fiona Sampson as a 'beautifully evocative read'. Anna has had poems published in journals and anthologies, which include Ambit, The North, New Walk Magazine, Amaryllis, Iota, Caduceus, Envoi, The Wenlock Anthology, Eyeflash,  and The Museum of Light. She has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North  and ‘a poet of quite remarkable gifts’ by Bernard O’Donoghue.  Anna holds 4 Arts Council Awards for her work.   

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