Date of Bith: 2/21/82
Location: London, England
Email: stephanie_matthe@hotmail.com
Website: http://easypath.to/reflections
Published in: Future Voices From Northern Kent
Awards: Shortlisted in the University of North London Creative Writing
Competition 1999, Highly commended in 'Young Writers 2000 Competition'
GIGGLE-SMOKE OVER THE BASE CAMP
Pot, Grass, Giggle-smoke.
Our wounds flake and disappear
and the cross-rhythms of the jungle
slow to a delicious thud.
I push the door of Wisconsin Elementary,
find my back desk and mumble
'God Save America' into
varnished pine.
On the metro to the office.
Christmas tree in Time Square
I am shaking and shuddering under
my regulation sleep.
We try singing carols
and think we are being accompanied
by Miss O'Connor on the upright
with suave candles.
I cannot sing so I play mazes,
following the shadows in her calico.
Then continents merge and 57,000 men
escape into the black smoothness above.
