The Tuesday Poem: “I Wish You Angels” by Joanna Preston
I wish you Angels –
riding up and down
and up in elevators
crowding around your
computer screen
emailing God
in the lunch break.
Angels scalding
their tongues tasting
coffee, constrained
to “drat” and “darn”
and “oooohhhh!”
I wish you Angels staring
into department-store
windows, striking up
conversations with dress
shop dummies. I wish
you Angels with fishnet
stockings and misplaced
body piercings, two years
behind the trend. Angels
trying to follow cricket
or rugby, buffeting spectators
with jubilant wings.
I wish you Angels
drag-racing owls
at midnight, Angels
perched on traffic lights
drumming aimless feet
against the green,
I wish you Angels,
whistling.
© Joanna Preston
from The Summer King, Otago University Press, 2009
Featured with permission here “…on Anything, Really.”
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We have just passed St Lucy’s Day (traditionally a “light” festival as in the Scandinavian Lucia’s Day), Hanukkah starts today, and Christmas is but 9 sleeps away—so what could be better for today, I felt, than to wish you all angels… Quirky, insouciant, jubilant angels for all of your festive celebrations, courtesy of Joanna Preston and the wonderful The Summer King.
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About the Poet:
Joanna Preston is an Australian-born poet, editor and freelance writing tutor who lives in a small rural town in Canterbury, New Zealand. In 2008 she won the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award for Poetry. Her first collection, The Summer King, was published by Otago University Press in July 2009, and won the Mary Gilmore Award for the best first poetry collection by an Australian author in 2010. She has an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan (Wales). Currently the Poetry Editor for Takahe, she worked for three years as a part-time tutor in Creative Writing at Christchurch Polytech, and was co-editor of Kokako magazine from 2009 to 2012.
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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.