Easter Monday in Hampton Wick

– Easter Monday in Hampton Wick –

Do you have a ladybird for me too?

Jamie asked after I’d put a red one
on Eden’s right hand.

She looked at me and asked again

Where’s my ladybird?
There was only one answer,

You will have one soon.
The girls were playing farmers at the back
of the allotment where Tizer and Eden

had dug the soil to plant potatoes
and grow some spinach.
Ya-Hsin, a straw hat on her head,

was seeding rocket salad.
I went back to help
and soon Jamie came to see us.

Have you found my ladybird yet?
We tried to explain it might have
visited us another day.

Elvis was playing, moving his steps
around the blue wooden house.
The painted eggs next to the stairs

had dried and Matilda put them
next to the tulips and hyacinths.
Annie and Andy planted

a new dahlia under the peach tree.
Its old branches had been visited
by blooming flowers.

Polly pulled up weeds
between the pea sticks,
Mark used the wheelbarrow to throw them

into the compost behind the house.
Jamie was on her way.
I knew what she was after.

She was right. My eyes were caught
by a red bright spot, hidden
on a bunch of dried flowers.

Jamie, look what I have here
for you! I said and put
the insect on her fingers.

Ali, her mum, asked her
What’s its name?
Betty, was the answer.

Chiara Salomoni