Eboniza – Goddess of the half-cast
Her skin is dark as polished jet
Her eyes are pools of loam.
Of icicles her cloak is made.
It chink-clinks as she roams.
She strides across the winter-tide
with seeds of persimmon
to plant them deep where snow comes down,
but how did she begin?
Her father played the violin
and lived the tinker’s way.
He drank his fill of damson wine,
made friend of waif and stray.
He sat below a tall black tree
and fiddled up a storm
that echoed through the mountain side
and found a mystic form.
Both tree and man were buried deep
within the avalanche.
The man, he died but saved the tree,
became part of each branch.
In spring the tree bore damson fruit,
a strange and mobile kind,
with legs and arms and purple lips,
a wand of wood to hand.
The goddess wanders Northern hills
with magic in her staff
to blend and mend what’s separate
and made from half and half.
She welcomes mermosets to swim,
octocorns and cowbees,
oakphants, roserats and kangagos
all find her treedom’s keys.
Her summertime brings dandy-cups
where butterlions sprout
In her purview we all find love;
she cares for those cast out.
As winter comes she weaves her cloak
of ice chimes, fine and thin.
Her hand in pocket wrapped around
a nugget of rosin.
Haruto and Ishi
After the Tongue-cut Sparrow fairytale
Haruto ploughs his rice field
wipes his brow and, at sunset,
trudges homeward to his wife, Ishi.
Fish is so expensive.
The neighbour’s boy made faces.
The old man talks to his pet sparrow,
gives her tit-bits from his plate.
You spend so much time with Enka,
I wonder you don’t fly away together,.
Haruto trudges to work at sunrise.
He gathers plants in weather worn hands,
feels the memory of Enka’s tiny claws.
My washday starch is stolen,
have you scoffed it greedy Enka?
The bird bows its apology, sings
for clemency, it was an honest mistake.
I’ll have your tongue! Now shoo!
Haruto looks for his pet at day’s end
but she’s banished to the forest.
Next sunrise he can bear the loss no more,
fears Enka is in pain, can’t eat, can’t sing.
He finds her, her tongue regrown
by some force he doesn’t comprehend.
Enka speaks, invites him to her home.
She is Lady Sparrow, her home glorious.
Into the night she entertains her old friend,
offers the choice of two gifts.
Haruto takes the smaller bamboo box,
promises to return when work allows.
You fool, not taking the larger box.
We’d have more jewels and gold.
Tell me where to find that spiteful bird.
Haruto sent me for the second gift.
Ishi’s back aches, her legs ache, she halts,
cannot wait to see inside the heavy box.
Out fly scary demons, ugly toads,
stinky monsters, fearful dragons.
There, there Ishi, don’t worry,
it’s your own fault for being greedy,
little Enka only let you see that.
Medusa and the Legacy
I
A scalp of writhing vipers
hidden under a beanie hat,
unless you need men stiff as granite,
kept still to halt their slashing swords.
Made monster to show Athena’s rage,
turned to stone by your own reflection,
shield decoration for the Goddess.
II
You flick your copious blonde hair,
draping it over each breast
drawing attention to them, making men
think of tresses on a pillow, beneath
their weight. Make of it a crown;
your sense of power over mortals.
Tragedy when the chemotherapy stole it.
Haiku
stroll between bushes
translucence finer than hair
arachnopanick
greyhound’s sleek coat
curve of his noble neck
badger’s claret jaw
soil cracks open
swallows green, belches dust
cloud weeps
ample lovers
red wine, beef stew, herb dumplings
steamy evenings
Sue Spiers’ poetry appears on line with Atrium, Black Iris, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal and The High Window, and in print with Acumen, The North, Obsessed With Pipework, Stand and Under the Radar magazines. Sue is a wave 17 iamb poet. She has self-published four collections with Lulu.com and has a pamphlet A Wallet of Creature Poems with Hedgehog Press. Her 5th collection, Paisley Horizon, will be published by Poetry Space by April 2028. Sue edits the annual anthology of the Open University Poetry Society and works with Winchester Poetry Festival. Sue won the Shepton Mallet competition in 2024 with ‘Byrdie’, and Poem of the Month with Verve in August, 2Recipe for a Long Life’ and the prizes are funding her 4th collection A Trunk of Creature Poems (Lulu.com) which features both poems. Sue has been longlisted in the National Poetry Competition and has two Pushcart nominations, and two Touchstone nominations for haiku.
