Cold Snap

 

It was one of those winter days

so cold the air filled your lungs

like a lover your heart,

leaving you chasing your breath.

Jackdaws took the first dance

In the sky above blue as a beach towel.

Ghost roads gleamed under foot

And ‘left behind’ leaves shrivelled in

Frost clung to their mother-tree branches.

Blanched snow clouds patrolled the horizon

Tightening their hold on the day

Like Clint Eastwood bringing

a Desperado into town.

​

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After the Show

​

In the cutaway moonlight

Salome hot from dancing

In the reach and mess of

The king’s tent ran to

The cool and scented bath

Her mother had prepared

Listening to the lullaby she sang

Weaving across the dunes

 

 

Bernard Pearson's work appears in many publications worldwide, including; Aesthetica Magazine, The Edinburgh Review, Crossways, and many more. In 2017, a selection of his poetry - In Free Fall - was published by Leaf by Leaf Press. In 2019, he won second prize in The Aurora Prize. His first novel, Where the Willows End, was published in 2021.