The Ofi Press Magazine

Poem by Grant Tabard (UK)

Published in The Ofi Press issue 44

Lay Me Down On a Pillow Where You’ve Been

After 'Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor' by Mississippi John Hurt 

Make me a pallet on your floor

made from the gnarly wood of a crucifix,

lay me down with Jesus Christ

under an arch of angels close behind your doorway.

Make me a pallet on your floor

so I can kiss your soles every morning when you wake

in a tar black country of soot trod into the soil

where no Adam’s needle pricks at the sunlight.

Lay me down in a blanket of your brazen hair

let me be draped in those entangled ship ropes,

lay me down with all the sleeping heads in the clouds,

I am in the dirt, bury me with a mask of your gossamer,

a set dress of perfume the colour of morphine.

Lay me down on a pillow where you’ve been,

make me a pallet to enclose your rosehip scented skin,

wrinkled with sun spots, seal the box with entangled ship ropes.  

Grant Tarbard is widely published. His first pamphlet Yellow Wolf is out now from WK Press. 

Image: "Day 137: Bed Time" by Tom Small.