I Teach My Daughter to Toss a Coin
then the bus comes and she tosses the coin
for forty minutes and does not lose it
a lot of parenting is getting the first child to play
with the second child
so you don’t have to do it
you have a little sleep
to the sound of HEADS OR TAILS
and wake up to say no or stop
when the screaming starts
whether it was heads or tails
you don’t have any interest
on the way home she loses the coin
but it does not stop her
HEADS OR TAILS
the coin is in her mind now
LYDIA UNSWORTH is a poet based in Greater Manchester, whose recent collections include Arthropod (Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers), Mortar (Osmosis), and These Steady Bulbs (above / ground). Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Oxford Poetry and Shearsman Magazine. She has just completed a new collection with the help of Arts Council funding, currently titled Stay Awhile, and is undergoing a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University, exploring kinship with disappearing post-industrial architecture.
Read more by Lydia Unsworth
Poem in Perverse
Poem in Abridged Zone
Two poems in Anthropocene