Sorry for the delay in announcing this.
I am delighted to say that the winner is Lizzie Ballagher who will receive a signed copy of Catching Light by Margaret Eddershaw.
Light Bulbs
Weeks ago, Christmas lights
Were boxed & back in attics,
Shuttered for eleven months at home.
Yet, naked in the earth’s basement rooms,
Incandescent daffodils mark time:
They wait.
There comes an equinoctial moment when
Flayed of skins, dried,
Stripped of frills,
Even these will swell:
Draw water
From chilled wells below.
If then they are plugged
Into the sizzling grid of the sun,
No one sees them smoke & glow—
No one knows except oak roots, rose roots…
Until March light pokes inquisitive fingers into the loam:
Draws up their answers.
Then those dimmed bulbs come on:
Yellow, palest white,
Shades fringed with orange edges,
Rimmed, ruffled in soft layers,
Taffeta trimmed.
Come April, all the lights are on again.
Lizzie Ballagher
