Jacqui Rowe lives in Birmingham. She is a poet and novelist, and co-editor of Flarestack Poets press. She has had four pamphlets published and her full collection, ‘Blink’ came out from V Press in 2017.

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FOOL
 I’ve waited at the window too many nights
 for the flying boy. First to the right, he said,
 straight on. I’m left with a shadow no one
 made for me. Wrap it in a spotted handkerchief
 tie it to a broom. Anyone who sees me trip
 away thinks I’m off to play Dick Whittington,
 with next door’s scrawny terrier in the role
 of ‘Cat’. But bells don’t make me turn, no more
 the fear of a fish on my back. Here is a rose
 I carry like the Jack of Hearts. Straight on
 to morning takes me only to the edge
 of the ravine, the gorge, the river running through,
 cat-dog, open-jawed, become a crocodile. I have
 soap to stick the shadow to my heels. Step off
 is all that’s left for me to do.