Flies buzz, zap the scullery window.
She wipes their last supper dishes,
mops her sticky forehead. Flings
the tea towel down on top the wash pile,
stacked teetering on quarry tiles.
Tomorrow’s duties tug her mind.
She loves them all, her sister’s two,
the three she’s born. All hers now,
along with David, once brother-in-law,
now husband, a man to be obeyed.
She’s been tied down, since Maggie died.
‘Esther-Ann, you there?’ Hannah,
calls out loud. ‘Aye lass, come in.’
‘A special day?’ asks Esther-Ann.
‘You’re done up pretty, so you are.’
‘It’s the dance,’ says Han. ‘Be fair,
you said you’d try to come, we’d pair?’
‘So it is, so it is, but David bid me,
Stay where you belong. At home.
I’ll maybe hear the music, later on tonight.’
‘More fool you girl,’ says Hannah,
and swishes out through summer’s
sunset, scattered pink-petalled light.
David downs his fifth, then thinks,
what if his girl takes flight? Weary,
he stumbles from the Castle Inn
and stops to stare. Sees Esther-Ann.
She’s on the grass bank, dreaming,
dancing, as the band plays on
across the way, pipes and fiddles
inside the hall where she dared not enter.
In fury, he grabs her arm, quicksteps
her to punishment. His errant wife,
a prisoner in her young, promised life.
Ceinwen previously worked as a Probation Officer, a Mental Health Social Worker and Practice Educator. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and writes short stories and poetry. She has been published in web magazines and print anthologies. These include Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Alliterati, Stepaway, Poets Speak (whilst they still can), Three Drops from the Cauldron, Obsessed with Pipework, Picaroon, Amaryllis, Algebra of Owls, Write to be Counted, The Lake, Ink, Sweat and Tears,Riggwelter, Prole and The Curlew. She graduated from her MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University in December 2017. She believes everyone’s voice counts.
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