Fragmented Voices

A Wonka bar wrapper.
No Golden ticket.

Two painted discs from an art friend.
One orange, one green.
To be matched to books, benches, fabrics.

Stickers of encouragement
that arrived in a parcel
with promised vitamin C and a bookmark.
Be bold! You can! Strive!

A bus ticket dated 21st March.
Single child West Yorkshire. £1.10.

CDs of my themed song compilations
Made each day to distract, entertain,
mainly myself, focus for Facebook friends.

Flyers for Quiet Compere lockdown sessions.
Facebook live videos
displaying a shyness I still struggle to throw.

Sketches by nine-year-old Frank
of Play Button Man, a sloth, a robot.
A handmade colour-coded South America.
Peru is missing.

The key worker thankyous we penned.
Postie, binmen, Morrison van,
buses, ambulances, police, rainbows.

A bottle layered with syrups, oils, milk
to represent the seafloor.
Skittles, pencils, marbles dropped in
to see how hard and far they will sink.

About the Author:

Sarah L Dixon is based in a Huddersfield valley and tours as The Quiet Compere. Sarah has most recently been published in The Bloody Amazing Anthology from Yaffle Press/Beautiful Dragons (2020), These are the Hands NHS anthology and Strix. She has had a poem published on a beer-mat. The sky is cracked was released in November 2017 (Half Moon). Sarah’s second book, Adding wax patterns to Wednesday came out in November 2018 with Three Drops Press. Sarah’s inspiration comes from many places, including pubs and music, being by and in water and adventures with her ten-year-old, Frank.