Rebecca Watts

---

---

Should Anyone Be Left Alive

Sea flows in
            over the sill of a
                        square hole (glass long

gone) recarpets
            the carpet (water
                        and weed) (shell and

samphire) swells
            the wallpaper (a circle
                        of ferns) (a cluster of dandelions

steadfast on a
            bank) ruffles the curtains
                        which hang on and stir at

the slightest
            exhalation (unbrushed
                        hair around a secret face)

Should anyone
            be left alive where
                        would they sit (the sofa

sodden) (the
            level risen well
                        beyond their knees)

---

---

---

---

REBECCA WATTS is author of The Met Office Advises Caution (Carcanet, 2016) and editor of Elizabeth Jennings: New Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2019). Her second collection, Red Gloves, is due out in 2020.