top of page

Wisty Thomas Poetry

ABOUT

Wisty Thomas was born in Wales and now lives in London. She spent a year travelling round South America where she met and stayed with poets, artists, and revolutionaries. She lived for a time in a hut on the Galapagos islands. For many years she had a busy practice as a Herbalist on the Welsh borders. 

 

Her poetry has been published in The Interpreter's House, Equinox, The French Literary Review, South Poetry Magazine, South Bank Poetry, Orbis, Envoi and Prole Books.

Wisty's poetry has also appeared in the following Anthologies: Not only the Dark (WordAid); Seeking Refuge (Cinnamon Press); Links in the Chain (Roundel) and Ordinary Magic, an anthology by Poets Unlimited. 

Her first collection, In Chimborazo’s Shadow, is now available. Click on the book image to find out more.

About

POETRY

La Virgen de Los Andes

Rattling on the dirt track like an old tin can,

she squeezes past a spike of rock

where El Condor de los Andes

had plunged to a mangled heap below.

 

Pigtailed women chew coca leaves,

smuggled lipsticks clutched to breasts.

Max Factor, English Rose,

Goya Wild Silk rouge.

 

Chickens squawk, goats agitate.

La Virgen de los Andes bears her brood

through thin air to the volcanoes,

their aching bladders on hard metal seats.

 

At last the pee stop.

A line of men relieve themselves,

women crouch under gargantuan skirts.

I unzip jeans, squat down beside them.

Bare all in Chimborazo’s shadow.

Secret

 

It begins as a small hollow

a skin of paper stretched across it

no bigger than a baby's fontanel.

 

Face to the wall, concentrating

like a teenager squeezing a spot

or peeling off a sunburnt epidermis.

 

She picks at the wall paper

scrapes out the powdery plaster

drops the bits through the gap

between wall and bed.

 

She has seen the rusty land mine

in the garden and the adder

her father found behind the sink

and chopped in half with a shovel.

She is four years old

and this is her secret

this hole that is now

bigger than an orange.

Poetry
Contact

CONTACT

Get in touch to order a copy of In Chimborazo's Shadow:

© 2017 by Wisty Thomas. 
Picture: Mount Chimborazo (1865) Frederic Edwin Church. 
Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York.

Follow me

  • Black Facebook Icon
  • Black LinkedIn Icon
bottom of page