Tuesday 8 November 2022

One Poem by Lynda Tavakoli

 



WHAT IT DOES TO YOU


The intrigue

 

the plain brown envelope                                                                 

the name misspelt

the address sketchily penned

with malevolence

by some unknown hand

 

Interesting

 

The opening

 

the folded white A4

the photocopied sheet

no prints but mine then (clever)

the six lines of loathing

magnified in black ink

 

                                    Really?

 

The follow up

 

the police the questions

the who why what when

of the perpetrator

the forensics

the underlying threat

 

                                    For Fuck's sake

 

The aftermath

 

the wondering

the knowing that life

has altered just like that

the boiling anger at the risk

you suddenly need to take

 

just to put your name at the bottom of a bloody poem




Lynda Tavakoli lives in County Down, Northern Ireland, where she facilitates an adult creative writing class and is a tutor for the Seamus Heaney Award for schools.  A poet, novelist and freelance journalist, Lynda’s writings have been published in the UK, Ireland, the US and the Middle East, with Farsi and Spanish translations.

Lynda has been winner of both poetry and short story prizes in Listowel, The Westival International Poetry Prize and runner-up in The Blackwater International Poetry Competition and Roscommon Poetry Competition. Her poems have also appeared in The Irish Times, New Irish Writing.

She was recently a guest poet on RTE1 The Poetry Programme and her poem, ‘You’re Beautiful’, was featured in the ‘Words Lightly Spoken’ podcast.

Her debut poetry collection, ‘The Boiling Point for Jam’ is published by Arlen House and includes these three poems which concern the plight of refugees, a subject that has sadly been forgotten about recently.

 


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