Kerry Andrew
angel & the Badman
she comes to you in the witching hour
seeks your palm and traces her fear
this hardened little girl uncurls her secret
tells you how when she was even littler
a Badman had done Badthings inside
of her, had hammered hate and hurt
inside of her
he skulked in jail, hibernated for three years
but was still inside of her
and now he was out
and out to get her inside
you lullabyed, her red angel,
through each witching hour
when dreams cackled inside of her skull,
shot out of her in hot night screams,
when she wet the bed to get him out
from inside of her
you cried, my angel, back in your own bed
when you’d finally stemmed her tears,
wrenched out heart-burnt helplessness
because you weren’t there to save her then
because you possess his weapon
but she chose you
and she shoved open your wings,
squeezed under to hide and be hidden
and not be hated for this thing
inside of her
you cried when you had to leave her
unable to free her from the Badman
but your wings flicker in her shadow
and she holds you close
a friend whose name folds up her pain
Page(s) 10
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