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.
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.
CONTACT
Get in touch to order a copy of In Chimborazo's Shadow:
Email: wisty.thomas@gmail.com
© 2017 by Wisty Thomas.
Picture: Mount Chimborazo (1865) Frederic Edwin Church.
Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York.
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