I am falling by Kerry Hammerton

I am falling

Kerry Hammerton

You must have carried scraps

of me with you, maybe from

the first time we met: a party

at your sister’s flat. Or the first

time we had sex: I don’t remember

when or where. Or the last time:

in our old bedroom, a few weeks after

I had moved out, the sheets crisp

and fresh. I think you were trying

to impress me.

Or, maybe, from our first holiday:

camping and walking in the Drakensberg.

It rained. We fought over who would read

the book I had brought.

Or from our wedding day, or our honeymoon,

or any fight we had.

Or maybe from the day I left.

And now those scraps,

the me that you knew

and all the secret names you called me,

have died with you;

and I am left holding


From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0


The Poet:

Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poetry has been published in various South African and UK literary journals and anthologies. In her debut poetry collection These are the lies I told you, (Modjaji 2010) Kerry was described as ‘an anatomist of romantic love’ and ‘amusing, refreshing and extraordinarily entertaining’. The Weather Report (2014), her second collection, has been called ‘playful, absurd, yearning, elegiac, dark and wicked’. Kerry is currently doing an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.

www.kerryhammerton.com

Sources of previously published poems:

Kerry Hammerton: I am falling; County Kerry; and Maps from The Weather Report, 2014.