Sometimes Angels Wear Kilts – a poem by J.V. Sumpter

Sometimes Angels Wear Kilts



and play bagpipes
outside the Tower of London

for lost souls
like me

whose friends left
for Borough Market,

whose phones are at 12%
and dropping fast,

whose paper map was confiscated
by Loki in ravenskin.

And sometimes angels will point you
to Algate station

and you’ll promise God you’ll be kind
to strangers,

help the next lost daughter of Eve, but
when you go up

the steps in Euston Square
and the woman squatting there

calls out to someone,
to you,

you make an exception
because you are alone

and selfishly, you want
to see your twentieth birthday

on Tuesday.
You know your angel understands.

J.V. Sumpter recently earned her BFA from the University of Evansville. She is an assistant editor for Kelsay Books, Thera Books, and freelance clients. She received 2020 Virginia Grabill Awards in Poetry and Nonfiction, and her most recent publications are in Leading Edge Magazine, Not Deer Magazine,and New Welsh Review. Visit her on Twitter @JVSReads.