Three Poems by James Mcconachie

Injera

Share with me, injera,
doro wat, feed me saltfish,
rice and beans, or show me how
to make for you, a passable shakshouka.

Tell me how your tongue feels,
where it stops against the teeth.
Hammam, hamama, the bathhouse
and the dove. Now tell me all the words
your people use to speak of love.

The Short-toed Eagle and the Ladder Snake consider each other, unseen

Ripple of summer barley,
his fine high call, over
the hollow bolus of an olive tree.

Tongue-tasting the day, a mother coils
in tight, glue-eyed, ready to shed
her everything. This cool, grey-laddered girl,
these jewels, this bowl of quivering silver pearls.

Peaches

Ripple-glass gaze, her cold mirada,
shy trill of the wind when she comes in.
Pinkstep Peaches, a stormwrack scamper,
butterscotch bright and pretty as a kiss.

The fire is lit, my tangerine Miranda,
and the house is warm, gay dancing daughter,
tonight roars the gale that gives no quarter,
come to me, here now, sit.

James Mcconachie has worked as a taxi driver, project manager, horse wrangler, hotel maintenance manager, translator, and copywriter. His debut collection, Consolamentum, was published in 2024 by Black Bough Poetry.