I am your blue
sweater,
the one you wear when you walk
to work on cold, Tuesday mornings.
I hang on your skin in the rain
and you don’t realize how the color
makes your eyes deeper, brighter.
I am the sweet, musky aroma
that clings to you in the smoky bar,
your last memory as you drift into sleep.
Slip me over your head, slide your hands
through my dark spaces, feel my warmth
like candlelight brushing your skin.
Melony Bethala is studying for a PhD in literature at the University of York. Her research compares the work of Anglo-phone Irish and Indian women poets, and she is particularly interested in institutions which affect women’s writing. Her poems have appeared in The Honest Ulsterman, The Narrator, When Women Waken, Abridged and A Thoroughly Good Blue.
More work by Melony Bethala
Tel: 028 7126 6946
Email: hueditor@theverbal.co
Verbal, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6PU
companyCopyright © 2026 Honest Ulsterman