Kitty Hawkins
Haikus on inadequate road resurfacing in Berkshire
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1. the cherry blossom
is teetering. Addington’s
edges extending.
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2. pavements: tentative,
enduring. cautious trellis,
molasses tarmac.
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3. arthritic layers
lamenting. gnarled and buried,
putrid ambience.
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4. a mountainous crown,
compressing. cloaks of divots
rhythmically splinter.
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Lone magpies
after ‘Untitled Song’; recorded by Arctic Monkeys at Electric Lady Studios, New York
We smear, watercolour on canvas, scoliosis recovering. Detached, a sugared cage of dull-laughter vibrating in afternoon downpours. Elvis & ecstasy is your comparison. Madonna on meth.
The sun dollops honey into your hazel gaze. Khrushchev on ketamine. We don’t do this all day.
Behind viscous glass your fingers seize a half cadence; light falters bitterly in a sweet, sweet stutter.
This is loneliness spread thin. Love in brine. Pressed flowers as faded paints.
Two June bugs collide with dead daffodils in a midnight brawl.
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Kitty Hawkins grew up in Norfolk, England. She won the Magdalena Young Poets Prize 2022, and is currently studying for her Master’s in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.