Long-Lost
Rolling hills, you say, you,
my long-lost habanero
still a bougainvillea on my tongue.
The cliff edge is listening
to the rattling begging tin
of the sea, long-lost, long-lost,
and I feel it, I do. I do.
In your eyes I am long-lost,
long-lost lapis lazuli
or long-lost beagle, faithful
brown eyes and teeth,
long-lost wildflower wreath
twisted to an orderly whole
by long-lost hands, yes,
those tan long-lost hands
that cupped the long-lost moon,
or my cheek, thumb over
my long-lost lips. Please.
Rolling hills, you say, you,
my long-lost habanero
still a bougainvillea on my tongue.
The cliff edge is listening
to the rattling begging tin
of the sea, long-lost, long-lost,
and I feel it, I do. I do.
In your eyes I am long-lost,
long-lost lapis lazuli
or long-lost beagle, faithful
brown eyes and teeth,
long-lost wildflower wreath
twisted to an orderly whole
by long-lost hands, yes,
those tan long-lost hands
that cupped the long-lost moon,
or my cheek, thumb over
my long-lost lips. Please.
Ellora Sutton, 23, is an MA Creative Writing student from Hampshire, UK. Her work has been published by Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Poetry News, Young Poets Network, Kissing Dynamite, and Mookychick, among others. Her debut chapbook is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow. She won the 2019 Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition, and won the prize for best poem from Hampshire in the 2019 Winchester Poetry Prize. She tweets @ellora_sutton.