You were a miser’s child left on the doorstep in the brackish

air of midnight

made from fallen leaves and petals of an unopened rose.

Who fashioned your elven shoes, did I?

You were the child piped into life

by the man from Hamelin.

Plaintive notes of green

123456with waterfall,

123456a graceful air

you pursued

123456or were pursued by

123456all the way to the door in the rock

leaving you bereft, unstolen.

Whole years might pass searching for that place

meanwhile the words refuse their making

tea cloths hang over the stove and the tea grows colder.

Who fashioned your elven shoes, did I?

© Frances Spurrier

Picture 10635586, illustration by O Herrfurth, circa 1912, image copyright Mary Evans / Peter & Dawn Cope Collection

Frances Spurrier’s work has been widely published and anthologised, most recently in The Poet’s Quest for God (Eyewear, 2016). Publication credits for reviews, interviews and poetry include New English Review, Wales Arts Review, The Interpreter’s House, Tears in the Fence, Staple, South and Write out Loud. Her first poetry collection, The Pilgrim’s Trail, won the Cinnamon Press Collection Award and was published by them in 2014. She is currently working on a second collection. Her interests lie in the area of the connections between language, spirit and the environment. Frances blogs at https://volatilerune.blog