On the Grace of Strangers

(for Clifton)

I fell down the cracks trying to reach

you

off the ship where the breadfruit

bounced

on the waves as your dark

skin

braced for the chilblains and a

wisp

of a lass taught you how to smoke and gloat that the

skinheads

couldn't have your girl.

More than a

gas

fire's mottled bars kept you warm in

Yorkshire.

Fingers fifteen years away from

callouses

and manual labour, twenty-one

years

away from stripping cable for

copper

in your garage with your daughter whose skinny legs chased

sticks

down Bradford beck.

On the grace of

strangers

I saw you hide your eyes and keep smart with your mum, Rosa’s sewing

kit

six years away from your mother- in- law's button

tin and lard- baked apple pie.

Why so fast, catch your

collar

from the future, feel your 'tash and the drum of your

fingers

impatient for what's next.

What's next, the town

hall

has a museum for the plods who chased

you not them

down Lumb Lane, queer to pay to

view

the mothballed costumes of your antagonists who found out you could

sprint

dart, decoy back to a miner's terrace with your dear ones waiting and a

yard

full of rats.

by Emma Conally-Barklem

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Emma Conally-Barklem (She/Her) is a biracial (L) GBT yoga teacher, writer and poet based in Yorkshire, England. Her poetry has been published in Free Verse Revolution Literary Magazine, Black in White Community Collection Anthology, Please See Me Online Literary Journal, Aurum Journal, Sunday Mornings at The River, Ey Up! Bent Key Publishing Summer Anthology, Tipping the Scales Literary Journal, Small Leaf Press, Super Present Magazine, Harvest Anthology QuillKeepers Press, West Trestle Review, Querencia Press, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Black Cat Poetry Press, Wild Roof Journal and digital chapbook collection, ‘I Won’t Leave Quietly’ In Her Space Journal January 2023.

Pushcart Prize nominated, Emma had a summer residency at the Bronte Parsonage Museum and was named one of Ilkley Poetry Festival’s New Northern Poets 2022. She was featured on BBC Radio York where she was interviewed and performed her poem ‘Magoa’. Her bestselling first collection, ‘The Ridings’ is out now at Bent Key Publishing. Her yoga and grief memoir, ‘You Can’t Hug A Butterfly: Love, Loss & Yoga’ will be published at QuillKeepers Press in 2024.

Website: www.emmaliveyoga.com

Instagram: @emmaliveyoga