'PAPIER MACHE' was written as a response to the theme of
WASTE and RECYCLING. It was published along with 'THE WOOD'
in the magazine 'TEXTYLE' (www.textyle.wordpress.com)
whose founding editor is Lucy Burnett (once a fellow student).
After bleating earlier about chopped up prose I stand accused and
guilty but this poem has, I believe, shape and most importantly rhythm.
What do you think?

PAPIER MACHE
by
Frank Bryce

I watch her face as we tear strips of paper
from this morning's 'News' I haven't read yet.
She frowns and sticks out her tongue
as she concentrates
just like her mother.

"They should be two point five centimetres wide"
she says
consulting the notes she made last night
as she watched 'Blue Peter'.
She's proud of her writing, newly learned
and has begun to make stories
about princesses and robots
and being good.

The PVA glue is diluted
ready for the next stage of production,
defined by her notes,
it's a bunch of flowers in a plastic tub
which we'll paint when they're dry
with the bright poster paints
she got for her birthday last year.

She reminds me to take them
at visiting time and to be sure
to explain they're for her,
with all our love
to help her get better,
"I'm sure they will"
I tell her.