Nothing so white as the reindeer’s flank
on which the child has rested.
This is the real world, or is it?
Once, on Harlech Crescent, in the room,
in the bed where my great grandmother
had dwelt, I read the Snow Queen.
In the garden, a Christmas tree that someone,
some January, had planted after the war,
a gooseberry bush (the one they found my sister under)
and a ruby-red peony with a drumstick head
big as his fist. Ice and whiteness,
hot pennies pressed against glass,
Kay going off (how could he?) like a gullible fool.

Gerda, so steadfast, going after,
in a boat on a stream, to meet along
the way, the little robber girl. Here she lies now.
Ruddy-cheeked, fast asleep.
Nothing so warm as the reindeer’s flank
or my great grandmother’s bed,
her eiderdown full of dreams and feathers.
A story ending on a skein of wool, a skein of geese

Novelist, poet, photographer, essayist and short story writer, Jo Mazelis grew up in Swansea, later living in London for over 14 years before returning to her hometown. Her novel Significance was awarded the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. Her first collection of short stories Diving Girls was shortlisted for both Wales Book of the Year and Commonwealth Best First Book. Her book Circle Games was long-listed for Wales Book of the Year. Her third collection of stories Ritual, 1969 was long-listed for the Edge Hill Prize and shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year in 2017. Blister and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Rubery Award in 2023. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Wales, The Screech Owl, Bad Lilies, Abridged, Pomegranate London among other places. 

Image by Nichola Hope