Nettles

Kevin Graham

I’m on my hands and knees

begging for forgiveness.

They stipple my tongue

like a hard kiss or flung

moral. The confession box

is dark and empty save

for the glint of a priest

who’s in the nave

waiting for schoolchildren.

Light creeps like a thought

along the curtains,

their plush purple soft

enough to touch. Trust,

like an old gate, rusts.

KEVIN GRAHAM’s first collection, The Lookout Post, was published by The Gallery Press in 2023. It was shortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Award and won the Southword Debut Poetry Collection Award.