The Surety
My brother begins to find that collar
a greater effort to wear Then the morning
the pale-faced daughter And where God
Of course they can't stay children forever But
he didn't realise that nine would be such a shift
At the school gate he watches her walk differently
Sometimes her diary sings As though he should read it
The names in pink on her pencil case
When do they become violent When does he protect her
He puts her in the bath at half-six and talks her day over
Top of her class But her questions
and the way that she frowns keep him awake
Which boy was it How the growth so unknown
Her small body is marshland to pain
Her mother chill with disinterest
Then the evening return Anastacia crouched
at the top of bare wooden stairs The knife in her hand
Patrick Davidson Roberts was born in 1987 and grew up in Sunderland and Durham. He was editor of The Next Review magazine 2013-2017, co-founded Offord Road Books press in 2017 and reviews for The Poetry School. He is the author of The Mains (Vanguard Editions, 2018). In 2019 he ran All My Teachers, an all-women reading series.
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