Open Poetry Competition 2010
Winner
The Ivory Parasol
Pamela Trudie Hodge (Plymouth)
It was hidden in a tin that in its painted youth
had held sugared almonds, white and pink
and delicately purple, perfumed tokens
Grandpa gave Grandma when they were young.
Within a nest of faded lace the ivory parasol
blinked its Cyclopean eye, the curved surface
catching the sun's rays, painting rainbows.
So small it lay upon my palm, yellow with age,
the delicate charm of carved ribs seeming
to enclose watered silk. A sweet illusion.
Its secret life lay within the jewelled glass
set in its handle, a bubble of hidden magic.
Peering through against the light my world
expanded. Brighton Beach in Edwardian
splendour. Pierrots, clowning, caught
mid-joke; Mr. Punch frozen; cartwheeled
bathing machines on the shallow tide-line;
a bathing belle displaying slender ankles.
Beyond this window, where Grandma sits
beneath the tree wrapped in her memories,
the magnolia has cast its petals to lie
like coracles upon the spring-green grass