The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Runner-up - Jeanne Macdonald

Jeanne Macdonald studied for her MA in Writing Poetry at Newcastle University. She read her work on BBC Radio 4’s, Word on the Street, hosted by Jackie Kay, and her work has been read on Radio 3, The Verb.  In 2004 her first collection white lies are harmless was published by Diamond Twig; in the same year Jeanne launched Blinking Eye Publishing to promote the work of writers over 50; funded by The Arts Council England, North East.

 Ten Days Later
(Caesarean Section, 1964)

She smiles, takes me by the hand, leads
me to a side ward where pine disinfectant

overwhelms my sense of smell.  With the help
of a footstool I swing my legs onto a surgical bed

and pull up my nightgown to reveal twenty clasps
that cover the scar.  She tells me that today

she will unhook and remove only ten.  I chant the first
line of the rhyme I chose in a pre-natal class:

painless childbirth.  With a dose of blarney
the nurse tells me it won’t hurt.  Sprays icy

mist over my body.  I’m not fooled as she unlocks
the staples.  How does my garden grow.  I feel blood

budding like sweat on my belly, and begin to shake.
’You’re doing fine’ I hear her say.

with silver bell and cockle shells - knowing it’s time
to tug the eased metal from under my skin.

I listen as one by one they fall into a stainless steel bowl.
pretty maids all in a row.