share


no surrender

you’ll be the war and I’ll be the war-torn

and I’ll be underground resistance

printing pamphlets on sugar paper

and you’ll be the war

 

and I’ll be the girls back home

and the boys on the front line

and the songs that they sing to be brave

when they’re frightened

 

or

 

I’ll be the war and you’ll be the war-torn.

I’ll be the war and you’ll march against me

with the placards that say MAKE LOVE – NOT YOU

then and I’ll be the war

 

you won’t believe I’m even happening

you’ll duck and cover as I paint the town red

and when I tumble home across the whole horizon blasted

you’ll be ruined


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

was born in Canada and raised in South Wales. She now lives and writes in South London. Her poetry has been included in the Canadian anthology The Edges of Time.



READ NEXT

Prize Entry

April 2016

Oögenesis

Karina Lickorish Quinn

Prize Entry

April 2016

After her daughter had – for the third time, no less – laid her eggs in the fruit bowl,...

Interview

January 2016

Interview with Fiston Mwanza Mujila

Roland Glasser

Interview

January 2016

Roof terrace of the Shangri-La hotel, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, USA; late afternoon, 8 October 2015. We ensconce ourselves in...

Feature

Issue No. 19

Ill Feelings

Alice Hattrick

Feature

Issue No. 19

My mother recently found some loose diary pages I wrote in my first year of boarding school, aged eleven,...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required