Pinpricks
False hopes are more dangerous than fears - J R R Tolkien
I wish I could lose you
like a wish from a bone,
a button from my coat,
that lucky stone
I kept in my pocket
with an old bristlecone
I picked from the forest
while walking alone –
but you stick to my skin
like Eau de Cologne.
If only to be a spire
without a dome.
I shouldn't need you,
but you're my roadmap home.
Maggie Sawkins lives in Portsmouth and delivers creative writing projects in community settings. Her live literature production "Zones of Avoidance" won the 2013 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. Her most recent poetry collection, Many Skies Have Fallen, is published by Wild Mouse Press. You can find her here: www.hookedonwords.me.