Bio
Clarissa Aykroyd grew up in Victoria, Canada and studied at the University of Victoria. She has also lived in Dublin, and is now a resident of London. She has published fiction, educational non-fiction, and reviews. Her poetry has recently appeared in Ink Sweat & Tears. Currently she works as Publishing Coordinator for LAMDA Examinations. She is the author of a blog about poetry and poets, The Stone and the Star http://thestoneandthestar.blogspot.co.uk/
Clarissa Aykroyd
Krakow
In this country
where I'm a stranger to speech,
I am privy only to pure tone,
no traps or false steps of my own beloved tongue.
Parents seem more tender, and children
are still children, soft and unafraid.
They play around me in sun and rain
in the great square, by towers and lions
as foursquare horses flick their ears
and look down their noses at my poor empty hand.
I am mute, vision-struck. On Wawel Hill
the wet blossoms whisper together
with the small words that I use to pray.
Only God can know what they and I say.