Two Poems

Nicola Toft Lahiff

January

St Jordi’s Day; still cold. I stalked the city.

I saw Catalan flags hang from balconies,

and Catalan men and Catalan women 

everywhere carrying books and roses.

I pictured your gap-crazy smile;

the way you stood in January,

the angle of your body against a motorcycle.

You were reading a book of poetry,

waiting to take us to the Urbanismo.

You wore glasses against cold, winter sun.

We viewed the apartment at dusk;

it happened on the stairs as we turned to leave;

the pair of you, and me, 

watching, as you looked and looked.  

Next day, I fled the scene; 

suffered the bitterness of an aisle seat 

on a daylight flight over the Alps:

Beautiful Ones; Daggers of Ice. 

First published by The Madrid Review, 2025

Static Candy

this quality of light

sherbet/electric

scorched earth/but

scorched city/no heart

flattened/static

pick ‘n’ mix/unreal 

lacks dimension

of the sky

sky, it’s all sky

I am sky

here’s a haze

outlined structures blaze

fabricated/nothing

behind/beneath/film set

cardboard/could

fall/

any moment/I run

back underground/a mole

rest my eyes

                     for Camden High Street