The knife-thrower's assistant gets it off his chest
Every time she misses I believe
in dragon dresses batlike in the wind,
in steel that nicks my neck so I can bleed,
and promises that no one can rescind.
Every time she ties me to the wheel
I know the pain of turning cruciform.
Every blur of metal makes me hope,
every time she misses I must mourn.
The punters gasp. A perforated leg.
I shall not walk abroad. The vein that's cut
should bleed tonight forever by the moon.
She takes the wound and heals me. Heals me. But
I know when we make love incisors close
to cleave my neck one thousand years ago.
Another knife is thrown. Come, hear it sing,
and hear me stutter how she spoils the show
by letting me live ringed around by knives,
desiring only her, and this my bane,
that I, whose blood she needs, must lie and watch
her silhouette and cruel carving aim.
in dragon dresses batlike in the wind,
in steel that nicks my neck so I can bleed,
and promises that no one can rescind.
Every time she ties me to the wheel
I know the pain of turning cruciform.
Every blur of metal makes me hope,
every time she misses I must mourn.
The punters gasp. A perforated leg.
I shall not walk abroad. The vein that's cut
should bleed tonight forever by the moon.
She takes the wound and heals me. Heals me. But
I know when we make love incisors close
to cleave my neck one thousand years ago.
Another knife is thrown. Come, hear it sing,
and hear me stutter how she spoils the show
by letting me live ringed around by knives,
desiring only her, and this my bane,
that I, whose blood she needs, must lie and watch
her silhouette and cruel carving aim.
Philip Wilson lives in Colchester and has published poems in various magazines.
Page(s) 20
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