MAGGIE BUTT QUOTES

British poet & novelist (1955- )

time zig-zags like a running man avoiding bullets

MAGGIE BUTT

"Time Travellers"


Manhattan's lights spread out below --
this firework show of wealth and power
outburns the feeble stars.

MAGGIE BUTT

"Top of the Empire State"


It's just a life, dear.
We all have lives.
Some spill them in the trenches
others in a cage.

MAGGIE BUTT

"It's Just"


When I was a girl my mother said
I chattered like a magpie
even in my sleep, as if I knew one day
the words would all be stopped,
wine corked up in a bottle.

MAGGIE BUTT

"I am the Sphinx"

Tags: words


The clock-shop keeper holds the keys,
repairs the rifts in time, its unpredictability.
A wind-up world where nearly-there is good enough.

MAGGIE BUTT

"Clock Shop"


Sometimes the day you long for turns as sour
as month-old Yaks' milk, while the one you dread
blows in with floral breath.

MAGGIE BUTT

"Blue Moon"


In war time women turn to red
swivel-up scarlet and carmine
not in solidarity with spilt blood
but as a badge of beating hearts.

MAGGIE BUTT

"Lipstick"


A doorway is a hopeless hiding place.

MAGGIE BUTT

"I am the Sphinx"