Two Poems by Susan Darlington Friends by Victoria Holt. 2016 TIGER LILIES She moves the vase out of direct sunlight and onto a hand-me-down wooden table that’s greyly filmed in spider-webbed dust, the slender necks of the flowers craning towards the hopeful blue rectangle of sky. He said he’d bought her tiger lilies because they reminded him of her sunset hair. But by the time the last of the faded petals falls and the water has turned stagnant green she knows that she won’t see him again. HER (PART II) It’s just a parlour game we play on rainy afternoons, razoring lines down our arms until red criss-crosses white. She always wins. She always regrets it. Rubbing India ink into scars that transforms her flesh into a field of rabbits, foxes and brooding crows that undulate when she flexes and releases her biceps: a menagerie that slowly fades until the next time we play. About the Author: Susan Darlington is a freelance arts journalist and poet. Her debut collection, Under The Devil’s Moon, is available now through Penniless Press Publications. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Published by fragmentedvoices A small, independent press based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, and Prague, the Czech Republic View all posts by fragmentedvoices