The Ofi Press Magazine

Cherry Beer

By Cara Brennan (U.K.) Published in Issue 22.

I would wait up for you, I’d wash my hair,

put the make-up on so it would look like

I wasn’t wearing any but looked better

than wearing none and sit

on my bed reading, watching catch-up TV

Until you texted ‘hey! I’m outside x.’

That bit was never a surprise

I’d trained myself to know

the sound, you getting out of a taxi;

an engine muted

a door slam

footsteps

I couldn’t be mad if you were late

we were so new

you weren’t yet mine,

you changed my candlelit scowls

with cherry beer in bed.

We would familiarise our day

tearing wrappers from bottles,

alternate sips and kisses before dawn

where I would fold

the scrunched red into paper cranes

and hold them after you left.

Cara Brennan is 21 and was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire she now lives in Newcastle where she is in her final year studying English Literature. Her poetry has been published in Pomegranate, The Cadaverine and The Beat as well as being commended in the 2009 Aesthetica Works Competition. In 2010 she read her poetry at Ilkley and Morley Literature festivals and she is currently in Writing Squad Five who are working with Simon Armitage on the Stanza Stones Project. 

Cara's pamphlet Destroyed Dresses is now available from Valley Press.