Weather

Preparing for his visits she wore
a waterproof coat, waders and a balaclava.
Still, she felt him lift her from the ground
like a punch-wind to shove her drenched
and shivering against a wall. Afterwards,
his angry fists became tentacles
that swam underwater. Sad songs trickled
from his mouth soft as a mountain brook.
She can’t remember how it began,
only how it ended – her sailing out to sea
as if she’d grown wings.

Belinda Rimmer has worked as a psychiatric nurse, lecturer, and creative arts practitioner. Her poems have been widely published in magazines, online journals, and anthologies.

In 2018, Belinda came second in the Ambit Poetry Competition, and second in the 2019 Stanza Poetry Competition. Her pamphlet Touching Sharks in Monaco was a joint winner of the Indigo-First Pamphlet Competition (published, 2019). She has five poems and the photographs that inspired them in a Stroud Poets Pamphlet (Yew Tree Press, 2021). Her pamphlet Holding On came out in November 2021 with New Walk Editions.