Must be a sign
the gardener had said
when he unearthed my sister’s ring
twenty years buried in mulch.
Now lost again
I stare at the bare flesh of a pinkie
in a washroom in Trafalgar Square.
Panic is electric,
it fizzes capillaries, chest to throat –
I rummage through basin and bin.
Rewind – I remember the rub,
my thumb twiddling silver
in a gallery, a Turner sunrise.
Later, the restaurant slumps,
the trinket slips into our minds,
consumes all conversation.
The train slow motions.
I sit silent,
the Celtic design soft-swirling.
Back home, I exhale,
a chink of silver rolls over laminate,
mystery circling my feet.
Kate Young’s poetry has been published in journals including Stand, Fly on the Wall, Alchemy Spoon and Poetry Scotland. It can be heard on the Podcast Poetry Worth Hearing. Fear was placed 2nd in The Canterbury Poet of the Year Competition, 2022. Her pamphlets A Spark in the Darkness and Beyond the School Gate have been published by Hedgehog Press.
Find her on X @Kateyoung12poet or her website kateyoungpoet.co.uk
Amethyst Review 