Osterglocken
Not having the English on her tongue
or thinking perhaps of Easter eggs,
the passed church bells, time moving on,
she said, 'I like Osterglocken'.
I smiled — at the flowers and the woman
whose name is Erika, a heath blossom.
'I like them too.' I like the flowers
and the words; the one in my head
and more so the one in hers:
Osterglocken — an Easter bell,
more musical than the one I know:
the daffodil — the simple asphodel.
Published in the anthology This Little Stretch of Life, 2006
Jacqueline Gabbitas was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. Her poetry has been published in magazines including Poetry Review, Staple and Oxford Magazine, and in anthologies, the most recent being Images of Women (Arrowhead Press, 2006). She has won prizes in various competitions and in 2007 was shortlisted in the New Writing Ventures Awards. Her pamphlet, Mid Lands was published by Hearing Eye Press the same year. She has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship for 2009 to complete her first collection. Her work has been translated into German and Polish. Jacqueline is an editor on Brittle Star magazine.