share


Two Poems

MAY

 

you slid into my life as though
a witch’s smock — a sun poem.

 

fat bee on a bright brick wall
atrocious swan of love

 

we roll apart
our grave-beds loose and hot

 

*

 

i have so many bouquets
it’s like somebitch died —

 

using love
as a bulwark
against modernity’s axiomatic selfishness
which i realise may after all be my great theme like
fuck

 

 

TINY VIOLETFLAVOURED

 

here i am of sunday
and earth
rotoxid — fortunate
for all i am not very giving of myself

 

the mad winds in trees behind the houses and
indulgent baby

 

bad
but better than Lars von Trier

 

like depression
all your friends have had me

 

affirmation: even the slug (who is most profane)
trails a platinum appliqué
of artistic tragedy


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

is a poet and novelist from London. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections: HUMBERT SUMMER (Eyewear, 2015) and FONDUE (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. Her debut novel THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES was published in the UK by Granta in the spring of 2021, and is forthcoming from Catapult in the US.

READ NEXT

poetry

Issue No. 4

Mysteries of Music

Michael Horovitz

poetry

Issue No. 4

Having absently, that’s to say dozily switched on BBC Radio 3 down in the kitchen as is my frequent...

feature

Issue No. 1

In Somaliland

feature

Issue No. 1

On a traffic island in the middle of Somaliland’s capital city, Hargeisa, is the rusting shell of fighter jet...

feature

May 2014

Art Does Not Know a Beyond: On Karl Ove Knausgaard

Rose McLaren

feature

May 2014

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle has an oddly medieval form: a cycle, composed of six auto-biographical books about the...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required