The Saturday Poem: an extract from ‘Grief Stitches’ by Emily Harrison

The Saturday Poem roars back into life, with this marvellous contribution from Emily Harrison. It’s taken from her new chapbook Grief Stitches, just out from the tireless Makina Books. ‘Each moment of chaos has its equal in exquisite, distilled detail’, writes Rebecca Perry: a good summary for both this poem and the collection as a whole.
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WHAT GETS LEFT IN THE HOUSE FIRE

The downstairs toilet with half the
leftover Chinese its three kinds of
stomach acid

the house holds Safeway
bags full of it in the cupboards and
coke cans

behind headboards and Peter
Rabbit wallpaper

Dad is writing DAD on all the
fridge food Rustlers and
cheese squares and

banana milkshakes – we’ll never know

his real name and ages
away girls are throwing a wobbly
in Asda’s as

me and my sister are racing each
other to iron deficiency shoving our
wrappers and

our knickers down the side
of our single burning bed