October Poem of the Month
Cyclops
Little turnip-face
hung in this jar like a jack o'lantern
you turn your botched eye
to the curious world.
There's something in the quirk
of your hobgoblin mouth
that seems to mock
yet might break into sobs
any moment.
Little changeling
you are so other
and so human.
They wouldn't show you to your mother.
I wish she could have held you,
stroked your auburn curls,
traced the whorls
of your delicate, perfect ears.
*Medical term for a rare deformity in which a foetus is born with the eyes fused in the centre of the forehead.
A C Clarke
Biography
A C Clarke, who lives in Glasgow, has had two full collections published, Breathing Each Other In (Blinking Eye Publishers 2005) and Messages of Change (Oversteps Books 2008). Her pamphlet A Natural Curiosity is due out in the autumn from New Voices Press. Her third full collection Fr Meslier's Confession is due out next January from Oversteps Books.
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