Afterthought – Beth O’Brien

 

I’ve recycled the packaging before I thought

To check the calories.

 

Half way to the bin, I made myself stop and I’m

Standing in the middle of the kitchen,

Battling the need to know, with the words:

It doesn’t matter.

 

But just wanting to look feels like I’m

Walking backwards, and

The words: ‘Just looking won’t hurt’

Already do.

 

Turning around, I sit back down and

Tell myself to just be proud

That calories are now an afterthought.

 

 

Beth O’Brien is currently studying a degree in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She loves reading, writing, food and seeing the world – when any of these overlap, she loves them even more!

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September 20, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: afterthought, battle, Beth O'Brien, Birmingham, calories, challenge, change, creative, creativity, food, middle, packaging, poem, Poetry, pride, progress, stop, thoughts, triumph, turn, UK, words, writing Leave a comment

3:18am – Beth O’Brien

 

3:18am is awake like its own alarm.

 

We bump into each other on the landing

because we are restless at the same time,

for different reasons,

and we jostle for position in the darkness,

 

both of us waiting for the other

to find the light switch.

 

 

Beth O’Brien is currently studying a degree in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She loves reading, writing, food and seeing the world – when any of these overlap, she loves them even more!

August 21, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: alarm, awake, Beth O'Brien, Birmingham, creative, creativity, darkness, encounter, jostle, landing, light, morning, night, poem, Poetry, position, reasons, restlessness, switch, time, UK, waiting, writing Leave a comment

Plastic Wing Beats – Beth O’Brien

 

Bird wings beat in a tree nearby

and it sounds like someone is repeatedly shaking

a 10p bag.

Not a flimsy 5p one, or a sturdy bag-for-life,

but the one in between.

 

I realise I know more about plastic bags than bird life

and think it is sad I’m comparing something natural

to something that isn’t,

because I’m sure it should be the other way around;

 

but I have never thought a carrier bag

sounded like wing beats before –

and I still don’t.

 

 

Beth O’Brien is currently studying a degree in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. She loves reading, writing, food and seeing the world – when any of these overlap, she loves them even more!

July 26, 2018July 26, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: bags, beats, Beth O'Brien, between, birds, Birmingham, carrier, comparison, creative, creativity, life, material, nature, plastic, poem, Poetry, senses, sound, thoughts, tree, UK, wings, writing Leave a comment