Weird Sisters are so pleased to share another poem by Maria Jastrzebska with you today. We must admit, it evokes some rather scary memories of introducing partners to disapproving parents...
The Ponies
My mother scrutinises
everything about you, leaning forward
to see better
as if she could not believe
her eyes.
I've brought some photos
of our recent holiday:
amateurish shots
of the New Forest, leaf and fern
just starting to turn bronze,
the two of us wearing warm jackets,
piglets rooting and of course
the ponies.
In all the guide books it tells you:
Remember these are wild ponies.
Never stand between a mare
and her foal.
And you are sitting on a chrome chair
in the new Polish cafe we've all come to,
waiting for pierogi stuffed
with cabbage and wild mushrooms,
under the arty sketches
of semi-nude women, your chair
between my mother's chair and mine.
Maria Jastrzębska
