Mayday Mooinjer veggey are well enough like people we can see, mostly benevolent even if some prey on the weak especially on Oie Voaldyn when the bridge across to summer is unguarded. Homes though are defended by croshyn and sumarkyn hanging above the threshold and on back doors. Fire is the key, not just to block bad luck but stop themselves from stealing the good. If you have land, then find a bush and burn the buitçh hidden in gorse, those brown -dead sprigs alongside sap-filled spines in yellow bloom. No sacrifice is visible though spirits cackle in the flames. Know you’ll be unforgetting an ancient tradition heeding warnings from somewhere else.
mooinjer veggey faeries, literally ‘little people’ / Oie Voaldyn May Day Eve / croshyn crosses / sumarkyn primroses / themselves faeries / buitçh witch / ‘burn the buitçh’ tradition to expel evil spirits
Simon Maddrell writes as a queer Manx man, thriving with HIV in Brighton & Hove. Since 2019, over a hundred of his poems have appeared in numerous publications including Acumen, AMBIT, Butcher’s Dog, Poetry Wales, Propel, Stand, The Gay & Lesbian Review, The Moth, The Rialto, Under the Radar. In 2020, Simon’s debut chapbook, Throatbone, was published by UnCollected Press, and Queerfella jointly-won The Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition. In 2023, The Whole Island and Isle of Sin, were both Poetry Book Society Selections. a finger in derek jarman’s mouth marks 30 years after Jarman’s death (Polari Press, Feb. 2024).
Amethyst Review 