They made her one the colour of her hair –
copper red and curling like her laughter;
so that when her own fell out and turned her
to a dream-skinned sprite she wouldn't feel
too different from the other kids. At first she wore it,
often at a rakish angle, covering one eye,
but as months slid over and remissions shortened
she kicked it to the bottom of her cot, where it lay -
a crumpled flag of colour on the blue-check bedspread.
Her scalp shone smooth then,
translucent as the lining of an oyster shell,
her freckles, pale tracings on a fading sea of face.
After a career in nursing Frances-Anne King studied creative writing at Bath Spa University. Her first pamphlet Weight of Water was published in 2013 by Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg (www.poetrysalzburg.com).
Selected by Femi Oyebode. Published in The Hippocrates Prize Anthology, Hippocrates Press, 2012.
©Frances-Anne King. Reprinted with permission.
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