Jane Salmons is from Stourbridge, England. She taught English in the sixth form college sector to 16-19 year olds for nearly three decades and now works part time as a consultant teacher trainer and private tutor. She has an MA (distinction) in Creative Writing from the Open University. Her poetry has been published in many webzines, journals and anthologies including Poetry Salzburg Review, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Ekphrastic Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly and The Emma Press Anthology of Illness. Enter GHOST is her debut chapbook. Her first full poetry collection, The Quiet Spy, is forthcoming with Pindrop Press in 2022.
Black Sheep
Methodist chapel, Lye 1934
There was a cheap engagement ring. A hastily made cake. A single horseshoe tier baked by the groom. The service was short. The vicar swallowed his words. Vows were mumbled with heads bowed. Jeremiah, the father of the bride, stayed at home and read his illuminated bible. The half-empty chapel sang let the fiery cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. On the trestle table in the hall, there were china plates, serviettes, slices of pinkish-grey meat, sherry trifle in a cut-glass bowl. The tea urn was filmed with a sticky layer of grease. A dark stain bled across the edge of the lace cloth. The guests shuffled their feet, talked in hushed tones of unspeakable acts, prison, parole. Once they’d signed the register, the newlywed cousins left in a maroon Austin Ten. There was no honeymoon, no bride’s posy, no confetti to sweep up in the vestibule.