A bride wears a train
of three thousand
peacock plumes
She walks down the aisle
like a planet
trailing her seas
every wave an eye
shivering with the memory
of the display
how the trees turned
to watch as the bird
raised the fan of his tail –
emerald forests
bronze atolls
lapis islands
every eye
a storm
held in abeyance
Pascale Petit is a French-born British poet. Her seventh book, Mama Amazonica, won the 2018 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe) is due to be published in September 2020.
Content from our partners
This article appears in the 03 Jun 2020 issue of the New Statesman, We can't breathe