Francesca Gardner: a poem

Fishing

You look into the stream for your reflection

But the water flows to spite you, gathering white foam.

What did you expect to see –

Difference, similitude, or similarity?

You tremble at the anticipated ecstasy

Of punching through yourself,

Of distorting yourself as the water distorts you.

Thrusting your hand in, you bring out a stone.

It shifts your pulse, imperceptibly.

It's darker now. The water's set alight,

The sky has shattered into pieces.

You tilt one: faces, fractured and multiple.

Fingers, wrapping around glass

And tightening, hoping to close the gap.

To restore you, as the water restores you.

Francesca Gardner is a previously unpublished poet from Lincolnshire, currently in her third year studying English at Magdalen College, Oxford. She enjoys reading Late Medieval and Romantic literature. Find her on Twitter here: @frankiegracex.