Photograph by Scott Barron Photography
Bunny Boiler
all men felled by my aldehyde Alex the glamourer i look like a stepmother wanna scrunch my hair? it sounds like a car backed on gravel one man left another arrived
I ached in the space in between the sex is arch thrust into washing up I kneel in a birdcage elevator I’m an itch that requires several scratches then one dead dad joke
my hand overplayed over pasta Alex the clamourer the hurt days now and they require lots of planning my dreams are like war video games opera I ache in the space in between Alex the matador behind a red muleta a family disappears Alex the conjurer the rabbit in the hat filled with water pink upon white and the world boiling over
look what you’ve reduced me to nothing as warm as a steamed-up kitchen I gave you my radial arteries I gave you a mix tape full of choice maladies isn’t it magic to
see yourself as you are? Alex the camera you hate me for it nothing as cold as
a steamed-up bathroom even my ending is taken from me someone once said life was
a sparrow shooting through a bright hall from a dark window to a dark window the lamp goes on the lamp goes off I ache in the space in between
Louise Peterkin is a poet from Edinburgh. In 2016 she was a recipient of a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in the poetry category. She is the co-editor, along with Rob A. Mackenzie, of Spark: Poetry and Art inspired by the Novels of Muriel Spark (Blue Diode Press, 2018). She is an assistant poetry editor for The Interpreter's House. Her poems have appeared in many publications, including The Dark Horse, One Hand Clapping, The Glasgow Review of Books, Magma and The North, and her first collection of poetry, The Night Jar, is out now, published by Salt.
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