LOUISE BEECH
Making Magic with Words.
Bedtime Barbie
Cherry paper catches stars
from the Christmas tree by the
scratchy wicker basket.
Pink wrapping rips fast,
except where Sellotape tugs tight,
resisting, putting up a fight.
Bedtime Barbie sleeps
through jiggling and jerking and pulling
and slippers coming loose in the box
to smack her in the face.
She needs a kiss goodnight
but goodnight is a forgotten wish,
remember.
She smells of blanketed babies.
Lace nightie tight at the neck,
skin beneath not yet wrong.
Wavy hair is brushed and plaited and patted
and persuaded by a boyfriend to be kept long.
Discard cherry paper
in tangles of sheet and pillow and ribbon.
No, save the wrapping – it’ll get used again,
for something small.
But the stars are ruined.
I’m in my safe place when I sit down and write. The only place where I really know what I’m doing. And I love getting lost in it.