Amphora

 

Before I Was Born          

Was I dead first?

Was I fated? 

Waiting in the wings

A fat cherub painted on a theatre ceiling.

 

Am I an amalgamation of others?

Others I didn’t know, my parents didn’t know.

Do I get these frown lines from a great aunt?

Or my stubby little fingers from her son in Penzance?

My nervous disposition from a related immigrant?

 

Did they live like me?

Would those unrelated see the similarities?

Would they say that’s where she gets those knobbly knees.

 

Was I dead first?
Or, was I sleeping?

I know about the 80s.

Everyone’s hair was big and humid.

Everyone looked like Madonna.

Was anybody there waiting for me?

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Bio:

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Charlotte Cosgrove is a Poet and Lecturer from Liverpool, England. She is the founding Editor of Rough Diamond Poetry Journal. Her work has been published in print and online in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first poetry book Silent Violence with Petals will be published later in the year with Kelsay Books.