Easter Morning

You folded my hand around your shoulder,
finger by finger, the grass blades
prickling our backs through wet cotton.

We lay with the rain cooling on our skin:
a pair of lovers caught briefly,
wishing we were a park of snow.

We have no time. We had no time.

Alone, I curl my toes into the sand
at the edge of the lake, grains like grit
as I skid the pebbles across the mirror,
your scent like incense on my skin;

looking down I see the ripples spreading
and a bright fish trapped in the water.

Katie Hale

Born in Cumbria, Katie is currently studying for her BA in English at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she runs the university's Writing Society and helps in the publication of its creative writing magazine.

She started writing at a young age, and has since partaken in several collaborative writing projects, including Action Transport Theatre's CROAK project in 2007, co-writing a short children's play about what happens to an imaginary friend once they are forgotten.

More often she writes individually, having written a play for Penrith Players Theatre in 2007, and regularly publishing work in the student newspaper. In 2009 she was highly commended in the Mirehouse Poetry Competition, and was the winner of the Anne Pierson Award for Young Writers in Cumbria in 2008 and 2010.

In July she is going to the University of Melbourne for a year to study English and creative writing.