by Pamela McGarry
Pamela Ann McGarry was born in London and grew up in Europe, the Far East, and India. Her poems have been published in The Lampeter Review, The Sow’s Ear, Kaliope, PointNoPoint and various now-extinct literary publications. Her novel, The Unsuitable Bride was a finalist in the 2021 Whistler Independent Book Awards. After travelling the world for most of her life, she may have settled on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. Time will tell.
Daughters
She douses them in admiration,
throws a careless match in their direction.
Look at them. Are they not beautiful!
She’s in her pride, lips a little wet,
the girls, still hers, are in their nightgowns,
their burgeoning breasts,
their puppy tufts,
her dolls, tucked up in blankets,
then untucked and tucked each night
and left and found again each night,
the lights turned out,
his breathing heavy in the dark,
the whispers, quiet, my wee doll,
settle cuckoo-like among the broken twigs
she calls her life.