This is another poem from the 'lost' UMBRA sequence; here, Umbra is reliving that first moment of disorientation as she realises that she is the reincarnation of Barton's wife and must leave her old life behind to seek him out. A little brief and fanciful, perhaps, but I think it worked better within the sequence, where the other poems bolstered it and gave it more fibre, if you like. UMBRA was very much a play for voices; a version intended for radio was performed at the Brasenose Arts Festival in Oxford in the spring of 1999 as a pure 'reading'.
WHEN THE FACES TOOK HER
into that swimming heat,
it was all iron and alcohol.
The first step crushed her.
The second step moved her.
The third step came over
like a wave on the shore,
beating its silver tongue
against her lungs, filling her
with the ache of recognition.
She was a catamaran,
arching her delicate blues
into the hull of an ocean.
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