A Surprise of Red

By Ann-Margaret Lim

brings me to you
on the electric, tightrope wires;
on roofs;
in trees, drilling mango, naseberry mines;
composing, re-composing lines;

twisting leaves, twigs
the mop’s white hair
into a nest for your young
who when you’re gone

I hope, will be too, a surprise of red
on the tightrope wires;
on roofs;

rustling Julie Mango leaves
as I do laundry and think on birds:
how small, yet large they are.

Ann-Margaret Lim is the author of Kingston Buttercup (Peepal Tree Press, 2016), longlisted for the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize in Poetry, and The Festival of Wild Orchid (Peepal Tree Press, 2012), a nominee for the UK Guardian First Book Prize. The recipient of a Calabash Writer’s Workshop Fellowship, she lives in Red Hills, Jamaica.