The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Olivia Anna Jose

Many Happy returns

Midsummer’s Day, and my tenth birthday.
It began in triumph for I’d trudged through
A desert of mundane June days to reach
This magic one. Now, in the silent trough
Of the still afternoon, the day as stripped
Of promise as the unwrapped gifts, I was

Restless with the memory of longing.
The house had yielded its secrets so I
Perched on the green front gate and drummed
The corrugated heels of my new Clarke’s
Sandals against the blistered panels. I
Challenged the sun-filled empty street to

Acknowledge that the day was mine alone.
Aeons passed. Then came a neighbour, Foreign,
Feared. (’Fled from Hitler’ the grown-ups mouthed’)
Head bent, arms straightened by shopping bags, he
Passed. Wayward with self-importance, I flung
’I’m ten, Right now!’ at his retreating back.

He stopped as though shot, turned, lowered
His bags to the dusty pavement, and waited
As each sighed inward to rest on canvas shoes.
He surveyed me gravely. What did he see?
Then, ’That is truly old, double figures.
You’ll stay in double figures till you die.’

A message from God could not have shocked me
More. The words swelled, screamed huge in my head.
Trembling, I carried the awesome truth to
The shadowy grass of the garden, where I
Lay, cotton frock pulled over scabby knees,
And rode the sailing clouds to mortality.