By Lucy Bleeker
Photo “Burnt Out” By Eoin Campbell
I thought you could bring life to the room.
placed you in turquoise flecked terracotta
on the bedside locker, beside the lavender
diffuser I believed would help me sleep.
Soon, limbs lengthened past the limits of soil.
I fed you eggshells, nourished you to suck
the water from my tap.
I wanted to observe you.
Carried you to my bedroom window
then kitchen and bathroom. I measured the
feedings and exposure to light, I replicated
a life you could have had. Arms
to the sun. Body buried in earth, but
I stifled your air pockets.
Green tentacles rot
Skin crushed into paste
between index and thumb.
I did not know how to garden you.
Lucy Bleeker
Lucy Bleeker is a Galway-based writer of poetry, fiction, and drama. She studies in the MA in Writing Programme at the University of Galway. Her play “The Baggage” will be performed in 2023 as part of Theatre Week.
