Reconstructions

Why don’t you come
still hesitating
by the blackberry bush

Through the twilight I see the small parcels of pink and white blooms that wave between us. Berries
for later in the year. The bees have worked hard to propagate. You’re still hesitating. 

Time should be for rearranging but we remain inside locked cabinets unalphabetically ordered. The
key was an oath, could be dreaming, might be gladdening. Right in this moment, it is mist.

Tonight in another time zone another city burns. Is it inevitable that a flame wants vengeance? Often
coloured for easier inspection, after ignition, comes reparation. A place remembers, 

it follows you bearing cassia and bowers, caskets and dragons. What do you carry? 
Does it taste like hope? Before

I rise and I dance
with my shadow
I sing

---

SK Grout (she/they) grew up in Aotearoa/New Zealand, has lived in Germany, and now splits her time as best she can between London and Auckland. She is the author of the micro-chapbook, to be female is to be interrogated (2018, the poetry annals). She holds a post-graduate degree in creative writing from City, University of London and is a Feedback Editor for Tinderbox Poetry. Her work also appears in Cordite Poetry Review, trampset, Banshee Lit, Parentheses Journal, Barren Magazine, and elsewhere. More information here: https://skgroutpoetry.wixsite.com/poetry.