Tantrum in the Gallery
Enter a mother and child, on the brink of war
he’s an aeroplane of arms dodging bullets
stomping on cracks in the pavement
emotions, a tight knot unravelling.
Eyes filling, over two poppy cheeks
soft fists pounding on the glass drum of reason
a thousand silvers spoons of tears drip through the silence
sticky fingers reaching for anything.
With a yawn drawn out like a wire
they both leave, worn as thin as a photograph –
Like a kiss falling from the end of a piece of string.
(Every line above contains a reference to or title of an exhibit in the Cornelia Parker exhibition, The Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester. March 2015.)
Winston Plowes lives aboard his floating home in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. He was Poet in Residence for the Rochdale Canal Festival in 2012 and The Hebden Bridge Arts Festival 2012-14 and his first solo collection of surrealist poetry, Telephones, Love Hearts & Jellyfish (Electric Press) was launched last year. Winston is a regular teacher of creative writing in schools and for local groups and is the proud inventor of the worlds first (and possibly last) Random Poetry Generating Bicycle, the ‘Spoke-n-Word’.
Chantarelle's Notebook 