Stone Doves

DOVE

I have been befriended by a dove.

He’s big and strong and sleeps on my bed.

I’m sometimes woken up by an eye that’s looking, I could almost say, shy.

When I say ‘sleeps’, I may be wrong. Maybe it’s more like he watches over me.

Like I said, I think he rather likes me!

At night his breast is pressed against my back.

HEART-TO-HEART

It’s very sad but after what happened

the fact is I can’t trust him any more.

Although I don’t know how, or what one is,

maybe what we need’s a heart-to-heart.

NURSES

Please can they be given jars of honey

and, with the honey, long-handled spoons

and please can they fold it in tahini

and spoon it from a bowl like the fonts

found in the ancient chapels of lost valleys

on which the sun has shone its rays for centuries;

and please can they spoon it from the bowl

straight into their salivating mouths –

and when the nurses finally fall asleep

please can they make sounds like canoodling.

DOVES

We don’t have to worry about love

or where or what it is

or how to do it.

We can just sit here like this

being irreproachable

stone doves.

^{Doves was purchased in 1973 and is included in a display of sculptures by Jacob Epstein in the Duveen Galleries, Tate Britain, until 25 January 2026.}

^{Selima Hill is the author of 22 books of poetry. Her latest collection, A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, will be published by Bloodaxe Books in October.}