Anne-Laure Coxam

the capricorn king and the cherry trees

you said the cherry trees were blossoming

but you were saying something else
I hear you Capricorn king

the cherry trees are blossoming

into a little dizziness

into a note
a touch
an alarm
a desire
a pollen

I shall echo you
disguising all you disguise

but your body my king
what a distraction
against writing poems

— you’re getting up
you’re making coffee
packing a suitcase

you shall leave my king?
you shall leave

and I shall be alone
wandering in your deserted kingdom

carrying the seeds sown
on my tongue with your tongue

carrying the pollen left on my body
after our bodies touched

having them grow
into words into poems

but wait
stay my king
stay a while my Capricorn king

kiss my lips one more time

kiss my lips with your lips
before we burst into bloom

Anne-Laure Coxam is a French-born poet living in Edinburgh and writing in English. Her first full collection the male and the female poet go to the surgery in exciting times was published in 2022 by Blue Diode Press.

Anne-Laure wrote the following about her poem:

‘The Capricorn king and the cherry trees’ is part of a long sequence in progress around the Edinburgh romance of the Capricorn king and the Tobacco queen.