We visit their grave
on different days.
It always seems dusk
when I come. Squirrels zig
zag up trunks of sweet bay,
wide open, chestnut branches
hold the low sun. I bring
roses as usual – carmine red
and white, and stand in the quiet
before bending down to brush
leaves from the marble slab,
from the cyclamen flowers
he’s planted. Look
for his footprints in the mud.
Poet, editor and translator, Maria Jastrzębska was born in Warsaw, Poland and came to England as a child. Her fifth full length collection is Small Odysseys (Waterloo Press, 2022). The True Story of Cowboy Hat and Ingénue (Cinnamon Press/Liquorice Fish 2018) was her previous collection. She is co-founder of Queer Writing South and South Pole, and co-edited Queer in Brighton (New Writing South 2014) with Anthony Luvera. Her poetry features in the British Library project Poetry Between Two Worlds, and her drama Dementia Diaries toured nationally to sell-out audiences with Lewes Live Literature. Sweet Bay was first published in At the Library of Memories (Waterloo Press, 2014). mariajastrzebska.com Poem selected by Jeremy Page, editor of quarterly literary magazine The Frogmore Papers. frogmorepress.co.uk
Image: Lilian Simonsson, Rêverie No.1, 2025, Photograph (petals on lightbox)