A Tanka Sequence by Amelia Fielden

your blonde hair

against the sofa's

blue velvet--

remembering how

I did not kiss you

ultimate

weapon to woo him

black velvet

trousers covering

seventeen year old desire

dark green frock

of silky velvet,

one child born

to a hard husband who

always asked the cost

brown velvet

curtains taken down

stowed away--

no seventies' colours

for her nineties life

ears of velvet--

fondling my spaniel

again I wish

I could stop wishing

for a two-legged grandchild

satin ribbons

shaded turquoise, sapphire,

aquamarine

sea and sky wrapping my eyes

becalm this restless mind

Fielden