Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Runner Up - Annemarie Austin

Annemarie Austin was born in Devon and grew up on the Somerset Levels and in Weston-super-Mare, where she lives now. She has worked in book publishing, further education and for the Open University. She is the author of six poetry collections, the most recent of which is Very: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe 2008). In 1994 Annemarie was a prize-winner in the Cardiff International poetry Competition

Cremated Girl

When they lay her out on black paper
we can see
what a pearly-queen she is

that can be put back in the jar as you might
spare buttons
saved for emergency repairs

All little plaques she's become who expected
to turn to ash
sifted through someone's fingers

just as the juvenile gull anticipating whiteness
has to suffer
a mottled phase of grey and brown

and white whose patterns might have been
drawn around
paillettes of bone like hers

She remains a sketch anyway like the newer
Uffington horse
of minimal chalk lines

we must catch at sliding out of sight
upwards and over
the brow of the green distant hill