Ode to Peeping Tom
                          I peep through corkscrew chinks in doorways
The summer moon has drawn his curtains
                             declaring all shutters and windows shut
                                                the wind is preparing a speech
                                                                 the trumpeters a fanfare
She didn’t choose the plucky pony with a spring in its step
                  instead the hot proud palfrey for his smooth ambling
See how she strokes his ears
                  pats his hind quarters enamoured with his shape
Notice how she bows her face in prayer
                               pushing her ringlets against round breasts
              swings her thigh
                      slips her Venus mound
                                 straddles velvet birds of paradise
                                     how fine threads of fur mingle
I don’t know if I’ve ever loved a fragrance
                                             half as much as her smell at midday

As her stud trots through fields of heather, the sun dressing her in lace
                                                                 purple brushing her fringe
I imagine the dance of the seven veils
                                        & how quickly John        lost his head

Kathleen Strafford has been published in magazines & online:  Interpreter’s House, Butcher’s Dog, Fat Damsel, Ink Sweat and Tears, Panoply, and various anthologies. Her Own Language published by Dempsey and Windle

Ode to my childhood friend Sharon

I’m not scared of the boys hiding in the bushes
but there’s mean old Mac

She told me   in the night
he creeps half-baked
           into her bedroom
                    trying to peel her

Because we are ten minutes      late
            Mac     grabs one leg     sweeping her      high
                 I can still hear her cries    the crisp crack
                                                     of tender skin
                              see her kick her legs
                until  she pees
                           down
                                his trouser leg
  She tries to ignore all the names
             he calls her
but they continued to sink
               deep into her fat.

 Later, her husband will grow spuds
              ploughing
                       under
                            blue & yellow wild flowers
                                         until they bloom
                                                       on her
                                                               cheekbone.
Now her family sit in their
                 brown-eyed cockerel kitchen
                         looking like Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters.

Kathleen Strafford is a student at Trinity University in Leeds studying for her MA  in creative writing.  She hopes her first collection of poetry will be published this coming year after graduation.  She has been published in magazines & online:  Interpreter’s House, Butcher’s Dog, Fat Damsel, Ink Sweat and Tears, Panoply, and various anthologies.

Across stars and blood-bitten skies
     dryads
            fire nymphs
pulsate veined wings
              stirring a sultry breeze

After all
                there is quite a bit of flesh
                         one whispers as they spy
                                  the skin of earth
These hard-core sprites
                                          swoon
                             diving into orchards
                                      of swollen blossoms
             wiggling their pink toes     licking
                   maple  from  bark
                    sipping sassafras tea
                                      giggling
                  as forget-me-not petals
                                           open wide

Kathleen Strafford is a student at Trinity University in Leeds studying for her MA in creative writing.  She hopes her first collection of poetry Her Own Language will be published this coming year.  Her poems have appeared in Interpreter’s House, Butcher’s Dog, Algebra of Owls, The Fat Damsel and various anthologies.