" title="Brittle Star Sue Butler
What’s Best?
A blue door. Not much to distinguish it
from a rural dispensary Chekhov would recognise.
You rush in the bucket half full of diesel,
sprint back for Ilyas.
The generator pounds. A 40 watt bulb flickers on.
You carry in Ilyas’ car battery.
The doctor connects it
to the old X-ray machine, takes a picture.
When the diesel runs out, the battery powers
a mechanic’s lamp, clamped to the pestilent table.
There’s a futile lozenge of soap. Water is boiled
on a wood burning stove.
Ilyas’ legs are ribbons of schnitzel; a mine
at the courtyard well. You swapped his watch
and boots for diesel,
couldn’t beg any vodka, hold him down
until he faints. The doctor sweats, saws
briskly, says, Ilyas needs blood
and should he pull through, it’s best
if you explain.
3rd Prize (equal) – Sue Butler, Ware
Page(s) 37-38
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The