Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

New Writing

I am pushing the buggy back home and a horn comes from behind
Nice arse they shout What d’you feed it? and in their own comic timing
Cock? which steels me at the back of the chassis, boy and hardback books
as it begins to rain and I attach the cover to the frame so he is warm but
with air holes enough to let a butterfly dance and I continue to push, umbrella
in one hand, buggy in the other and whichever – elbow, hip, pubic bone –
is available to help, which takes me back and down rivulets
                   to when Europe squared up and she took to the waters
sending cargo down the Grand Union canal with Olga, Sonia, Evelyn and
Emma who knew milk and handcream but hadn’t wanted a job in admin,
loading barges, red, gold and black, belly-flat to the Fenland tides, with
coal and pre-fab houses like a message in a bubble as yet unclapped
of peace with all mod cons although Life was hard goose-bumped and
stomach-shrunk, growing down to keep them warm, as crisp or limp
as an allotment lettuce, damp and rationed until a nudge of muscle
at the bicep, trousers and ciggies, ruddied, dried and coarsening, squatting
in the lives of those with afloat homes, and in particular, a boat man
whose nut-brown gaze levels, holds and whispers Idle Women like a name
and an ask. Now she serves on the Parish Council and under any other
business swings in a hammock, attempting to read the tattoos in the wrinkles,
remembering how the earth moved, this way and that
                     Ready to catch? back home and he cups his hands in a bowl, palms
creasing the life lines and watches my face as I realise I have thrown
the wear of women too hard and the ball dives fast towards him.

SARAH ROBY was a runner-up in last year’s Mslexia Poetry Competition with ‘Schedule of Restrictive Covenants.’ She is completing her postgraduate studies and is mother to one son, aged four. A room decorated with 1930s furniture – all cannily bought on eBay – acts as her creative space which she occupies at either end of the day. She asserts that one of the fundamentals of good writing is good reading.

This story has been selected from the Mslexia archive. For the latest on the writing world, publishing and creativity subscribe now. To sample more Mslexia features or to find out about the latest issue click here.