Elizabeth Barrett
We Caught Our Breath
as a woman swung by the neck,
her noosed body unwinding
on a snaking rope, lassooed torso
drawing circles in the air; another hung
from the hair, hauled hook and pulley
by the roots - the wind of bound body
dazzling, stretch of her thrown throat exquisite.
When fire began we linked hot hands
through flare and roll of smoke thickening,
the drums' beat maddening in our wrists;
burning wood put to skin and into mouths;
oiled limbs slung low beneath a blazing stake.
Above, the fling of thin wire whistling and a
stretched hand accepting its breath-catching dare.
A distraction of knives glittered casually -
winked flick and twist at a girl's grotesque
doubling (ankle to ear, knee to back)
by warp of bone into a screwed-down
chest - enduring silence through thrust
of six spears, a bladed pole's impaling;
the wince and twitch of our witness.
When the pails of water were passed through
and the people with big feet trampled in,
noses and smiles fixed, I heard her exhale;
sensed, at last, the slacken and sigh of my
daughter's relax - her nerves high-wired,
flaming heart in need of cooling down
with this light-relief, the strategic clown.
Page(s) 20
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