Lucy Aphramor
The Violin People
Women who self-starve are frequently covered with a fine downy hair called lanugo. This behaviour is sometimes seen with trichophagy (eating hair).
I am bald of need
sufficient unto myself
I yank lank handshakes
out discretely
nibble the violin people’s heartstrings
they fret visibly I know they want
to cajole me the long blondes
swivel on scissoring steps
their need appals me
the way their ravenous lashes
suck me up! I could be punk!
Not this hennafed brunette, ordinary,
(part-tonsured). Their sparse mascaraed
eyes are boring and envious. They are moulten
with unfinished lives. I am replete -
obese even - beneath this purled nacreous
carapace acres of unwound silks caress
my independent limbs my second skin
my counterpane of fibreglass feelers.
It is complete as I am. The violin people
are uncovered, vulnerable. Such puppetry!
Their bodies are polished husks, their lives
slick and brilliantine as their eyes, peeled
as my undemanding shadow slinks by.
I stroke my touch of luck, flagrant
with meaning
Lucy Aphramor began writing poetry when she met and was inspired by the late Amryl Johnson. Her first collection, Splitting the Silks (Benchmark Press), was published in 1998. She has been published in various magazines. She lives in Coventry where she works as a trainer/campaigner on equality issues in (mental) health and as a dietitian
Page(s) 101
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
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- 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
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- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
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- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
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- Yellow Crane, The