'There was a Walcott quality to the quiet poem ‘Like This’ by Claire Dyer, where language becomes a visual painting delicately capturing a sense of place.' - Malika Booker, 2019 Women's Poetry Competition Judge
Like This
Each morning the stirring branches
and the shepherd calling his ribbon
of sheep to heel in the olive grove
beneath our window.
The bay scattered with tin-foil confetti,
the fishing boats bringing back the catch,
and in town they’ll be washing down
the restaurant floors, loading sweet peppers,
strawberries, aubergines into vans.
As the muezzin rings the air, a ballet
of bee-eaters rises above the trees.
And I, turning, see you sleeping.
I did not expect it still to be like this.