Healthcare, Welsh Style (removing warts)
Short-listed for the 2026 Bournemouth Writing Prize, Removing Warts is part of a poetry collection that dives into the folklore of my childhood...
the swish of the Willow Man’s stick
an inch above my head
just in hearing range for a kid
the crackling of the longwave radio
like crisp packets
It’s16:35 Storytime!
the rake of his wife’s knife
scraping Shirgar on toast
black specks fleck the Formica
like soot
the flutter of the hairs
on the crown of my head
the puff of the Willow Man’s whispers
‘gainst my greasy forehead
newspaper stains on my brother’s fingers
his tea mug ringing rings on Farmers Weekly
watching
tight lipped
Years later
my brother says
It was all nonsense
that the misery only ended with
the doctor and the freezing
But I remember it differently
Flavourless white NHS clinic
liquid nitrogen burning the
unburnable clusters
of pink bulbous crusts on my fingers
The taunts at school
Then we found the farm
and the Willow Man ended it
