New Poetry by Annmarie McQueen

Conversations in high places

From those rooftops Brussels glittered

Before us like an open quarry

 

The centuries

Layered on top of each other

 

Books stacked

High on a crumbling shelf

 

Stories and secrets lost somewhere

In a sprawling city which rippled

 

When we touched it, seconds away

From shattering completely.

 

Dangling our feet over a

Brilliant abyss

 

We convinced ourselves we could

Step out onto the next building

 

And then the next

 

Bridging these night-time voids like

Skipping stones.

 

And I saw you running through

 

Empty streets

 

Burnt amber in my mind,

Searing down concrete boulevards

With your clothes on fire

 

Your smoking voice and

Barren eyes

 

Shedding the flames to rise from them

A phoenix in denim.

- Annmarie McQueen 2015

Annmarie McQueen is a recent graduate of Warwick University in the U.K, where she studied English and creative writing. An aspiring author/poet and previous winner of the Simon Powell poetry prize, she has been published in magazines including ‘Words with Jam’, ‘Reach poetry' and 'Buried letter press.'