The places where I belong are
the fairytale-real wooded spaces,
wearing leathern boots and wrapped in wool,
or up on the wild, windy moor
endlessly searching Heathcliff
may I never find him
with hair and cape, whipping
like funereal pirate flags in my wake.
The places where I belong are
the storied stone circles
with cup, sword, and athame,
and crescent on my brow,
or on the wide staircase
of some forlorn manor
given long ago to more colourful gods,
gods who accept chocolate offerings.
The places where I belong are
not sharp, not precise,
not built with bricks and pebbledashed,
not LED lit with background hum,
not busy with people and our chattering,
not cluttered with all the coloured plastic bins,
and perhaps not convenient.
Not where I am.
About The Author
Cara L McKee grew up in Yorkshire and now lives on the west coast of Scotland where she works in a village library (when it’s open). Cara’s poetry has recently been published in anthologies from the Scottish Writers’ Centre, magazines like Gutter, online as a Spotlight poet, in Ink, Sweat and Tears, and in zines from The Queer Dot and Mum Poem Press. Her chapbook is First Kiss, published with Maytree Press, May 2020, and copies are still available from her website.
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