Greta Bellamacina
Missing Europe
I made up our bed, a clean wedding
thought I would find you in it.
Thought we had the same eroding mouths
when you swallowed my language
I didn’t care because the secrets of my past
were yours too and I counted how many women I could be.
I felt lighter than all the metal flags between us
the ones that made up our alibi stars,
arrows breaking up miles and the value of chicken.
And below we were their immigrant lovers
marching paradise futures, filling up the diary you carry
around like a small echo healer.
And we laughed at the big brother forecast,
until we could no longer understand why we
were both missing.
Greta Bellamacina is fluent in the world of literature, film, and fashion; Greta’s talents are
rooted in the world of poetry. Shortlisted as Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014 for her
debut poetry collection, she has since published several volumes of poetry in the UK. Her
new film, Hurt by Paradise, premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 and
was nominated for the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film and
Best Performance in a British Feature Film. Her most recent collection is Tomorrow’s Woman (Andrew McMeel, 2020).
The above piece appears in the February/March 2020 issue of The London Magazine. To purchase a copy or any of our archive issues, click here.
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