Vox Populi
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Pascale Petit: Salt Bride
(after Sigalit Landau)
How long has Earth floated in her salt dress?
When did her bridal gown crystallise,
weighing her down like an anchor
inside a dead sea?
Who lowered her into the abyss?
Whose tears does she wear?
Bride who once somersaulted
through the fathoms like a song-whale
flooding ships with her psalms,
homing through the deep,
attended by shoals of stars.
She is an antique dress
with crinoline hoops
encrusted with islands and continents.
Lonely blue-white jewel,
no fish to stroke her plastic bags
snagged inside the lace
where once she had a body.
Copyright 2024 Pascale Petit. First published in Planet Magazine: the Welsh Internationalist
Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall, UK. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection of poetry, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, 2017), won the inaugural Laurel Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her debut novel, My Hummingbird Father, is due from Salt in 2024 and her ninth collection, Beast, from Bloodaxe in 2025.
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I adore the imagery in this poem✨
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I do too.
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I admire Pascale Petit’s work.
“Lonely blue-white jewel,
no fish to stroke her plastic bags
snagged inside the lace
where once she had a body.”
Extraordinary.
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I love her wild imagination.
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Thank you! The wild is what compels me to write x
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Thank you for your kind comment
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Pascale!
She, and this poem, and everything she does is fabulous! Real poetry!
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thank you so much!
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