Victoria Pugh writes about the natural world – searching landscapes and seascapes for the secrets of the human heart. She has lived in various parts of Wales and in the Lake District. And she loves wild places... for a while; but she has had to accept that she is probably an urban person. She was born in London and has lived in Reading for the last twenty years. Her first collection of poetry—Mrs Marvellous—is being published by Two Rivers Press very shortly. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and has been successful in the Cardiff International poetry competition, Scintilla poetry competition, Blinking Eye poetry competition and has been published in magazines.
Victoria Pugh teaches literacy and learning skills at Thames Valley University. Besides she is a member of Second Light Network.

Quelle: poetry p f


You Are What You Keep

“They’re weird, these people,
look in the box, it’s full of teeth.”

And he emptied the box of teeth
all over the bed.

He pulled out a drawer
and tipped the contents on the floor.

He found:

A pendant made of plastic
with a crab trapped inside it.

A small seal
made of real seal skin.

A badge that played a song
and lit up when he turned it on.

A postcard of dolphins at Knossos.
A photo of dolphins at the zoo.

Something that was very gooey
in a coin bag from the bank.

Caked make-up by Mary Quant.
A candle, a pencil, a thimble, a buckle.

An extremely small copy of Macbeth.
A card saying Happy Bithday, Mum.

He ripped open a bag and found
a plaster cast of someone’s teeth.

“They’ve got nothing, just nothing.”
He threw the teeth at the wall.

They left by the back door—
he threw my rubber gloves on the floor.

published in New Welsh Review, 1999,