A J DALTON is a London-based poet. This is his first appearance in The Brazen Head

The Curse

I’d always been nice

to Sheila, at least

I hadn’t ignored her

like the others or whispered

about how she was warty

under her raggedy dress

---

I liked her smile, mostly

not the queasy one she wore in church

or her over-grin when the weather turned

–just the one she let me see

when the wind blew our hair up

or a bird incredibly came at my call

---

Yet the seasons turned too quickly

and I was paired with the trader’s girl

to help her father’s business

yes, for that alone I betrayed my love

and I shunned her like the rest

till she left forlornly for the surrounding woods

---

Then the animals started to sicken

and the crops withered with a blight

till the people began to starve

–save me, I seemed alright

as death darkened every home

I was all alone

---

Our village was still and silent

abandoned and undone

I didn’t have the air to breathe

yet the end was still denied me

I mouthed and moaned to the louring sky

in dumb appeal that I might die

---

Only then the figure came

to hear me beg forgiveness

so I saw that smile of hers again

just the one she let me see:

and Sheila leaned in close, murmuring so sadly

of the things that might have been.