Here is a poem from Jean Stevens’ new collection Stick Woman just published by Broken Sleep Books. Jean is our guest poet: more poems later this month.

I’m not one for bucket lists. But I was going to get a tattoo. The bee was adopted into the Manchester Coat of Arms in 1842. In the industrial revolution the factories were seen as bee hives – the energy, hard work and determination of the workers.

Already a symbol of Mancunian identity, the bee gained global popularity after the 2017 Arena bombing – a way to show support and solidarity. I was going to get one too. Phoebe at the hairdressers showed me hers – it was much larger than I expected and I chickened out.

Bucket list

Number one is getting a tattoo.
I imagine a dark chemical smell,
the pain of a needle scoring my flesh,
the tattooist pulling my ageing skin taut
wiping off blood and surplus ink.

He’s painting a peacock butterfly,
all velvet and flame,
with eye-spots blue as the sky,
which may soon become
endangered, then forever lost.

I’ve chosen two creatures in one,
the peacock, earthbound since
its flight feathers were clipped,
and a butterfly which can fly, both
kept in the curve of my sheltering arm.