Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk
New Writing
3RD PRIZE
Ruby Turning Thirteen
Patricia Ace
She comes home from school smelling of rubbers
and Tippex and, faintly, of sweat.
She cradles her cat like a baby,
carries him around like a doll.
She slops milk into a glass, grabs a piece of bread.
She’s in a play about the seven deadly sins.
I’m this girl who’s dead full of herself – y’know, flirty…
I’m playing Lust.
She shoves a pink magazine in my face.
Who d’ you think is the fittest out of these guys?
She flicks the pages, playing it cool.
Her belt spells ROCK in silver studs.
Cookie Monster grins, ironically, from her t-shirt.
A guinea pig fidgets in the pocket of her hoody.
I study Shane and Jesse, Justin and Johnny.
He is soooo fit, she says. He’s got a six-pack. Look.
She pretends to be a dog, down on all fours,
tongue lolling out, hunting for hidden treats.
Good doggy I say, patting her head, playing the game.
(She wants a dog more than anything.)
She lies on my lap, pretends to be a baby.
Her braces knock against the lip of her sucky cup.
I’m not ready for a boyfriend yet, she tells me
I’m playing the field.
PATRICIA ACE, 39, finds writing to be a revelation of herself. A part-time yoga and creative writing teacher, she often seeks out the quiet hours between midnight and four am to pen her work. Finding her inspiration through other writers and workshops, she aspires to one day win an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her work has appeared in Scottish and Welsh anthologies as well as in pamphlet form.
On winning…
When I heard the news that I’d won third prize I couldn’t take it in.
Gobsmacked, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, thunderstuck (such lovely words)…I think Omigod! was my first reaction, followed by a bit of high-pitched babbling and then, finally, a stunned silence.
Luckily my eldest daughter was on study leave for A-levels so I had someone at home to share the news with. I’d been sworn to secrecy on the phone which seemed a cruel twist of fate. For once in my writing life I felt I had something to shout from the rooftops…but I had to remain tight-lipped for a whole month! It was quite exciting carrying this secret around as I went about my business after the phone call; each time I thought about it I would catch myself smiling, like you do when you remember good sex the next day.
I’ve been submitting to New Writing in Mslexia since 2002, only once reaching the shortlist, and this is the third time I’ve entered the Poetry Competition. I have to admit, I was beginning to think that maybe Mslexia wasn’t for me, so the phone call came as a complete surprise. I am over the moon that Ruby Turning Thirteen has been picked because the Competition is very prestigious and the magazine is highly visible – all my women writer friends read it. Everyone knows that competitions can be a bit of a lottery but that doesn’t detract at all from being selected out of all the entries; there are so many excellent women poets out there and no-one can deny that having your work endorsed in this way gets your name known a bit more and raises the old profile.
To have been selected by a leading poet such as Carol Ann Duffy, whose work I have always admired for its wit, wordplay, strong formal qualities and exploration of the female experience, feels like a real validation.
My wonderful daughter, Ruby, who turned thirteen in January, has been very patient and supportive while I’ve been studying down in Glasgow so I’m particularly pleased that a poem which celebrates her in such a personal way has been chosen. I’ll keep you posted on how she feels about it! Both of my daughters have featured strongly in my poems and stories over the years – they are always an inspiration to me – and I think Ruby Turning Thirteen is very characteristic of my work in general.
