Poems from Nina Parmenter

Erosion

I tell you, I am shaped from sand,
two scoops of a curving beach.
I am a rainbow of grains
that feels something like skin
from a distance.

I tell you, I have been coaxed by water
from rock after hopeful rock.
I am the pick of seven shorelines
carried, sleeping, on currents
and placed by waves.

I am a lot of everything:
I am midnight, white and ochre.
When I find my mould, I will be a tall castle
proud against the ocean,
my turrets deep gold.

I tell you, I am one step
from riding off on your battered shoes
and lying on your carpet,
all my rainbows broken,
my shorelines, lost.

Tiny Things

An acorn is a forest inside a forest inside a forest.
An epoch on a rotting floor.
We giggle at its hat. 

A daughter is born with a million promises
heaped in her belly like caviar.
Her toes enchant us.

The night sky will expand and burst
as sure as a greedy lung.
We smile, and sing ‘twinkle twinkle’ 
to the stars.

This is how we walk amongst the trees 
without crying for home.
This is how we spin on through the dark
without fear of falling. 


Box of May

Spare me the bland cremation.
Let me end in a box full of May,
white-flowered and luscious,
lidded by a half-and half sky.
Let my pyre be a verge lit by green
and flaming with cow parsley;
let me go, knowing 
that the hawthorn is eternal,
that there will always be spring rain. 

First published by Green Ink Poetry

Bio: Nina Parmenter’s first collection will be published by Indigo Dreams in 2022. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Honest Ulsterman, Atrium Poetry, Snakeskin, Allegro Poetry, Green Ink, and Ink Sweat and Tears. In 2021, she was winner of the Hedgehog Poetry single poem contest and was nominated for the Forward Prize. She lives in Wiltshire but can be found online at www.ninaparmenter.com or on Twitter @ninaparmenter.

A Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Nina Parmenter