Kathleen Kenny
Slaughtered
They all crowd in.
Someone who can’t bear to look
crouches under the bed.
Once you’re out
they wash you, weigh you,
put you in a plastic basket and leave.
Only me now with two old sows
who grunt over my carcass,
clean between my legs,
knuckle soap into my armpits
while they talk about going to market,
the abattoir, the price of pig.
For the next nine weeks,
I believe my head
has slipped off my neck,
but I must make the effort,
must smarten myself,
straighten my aching back,
My split pubic bone will reconnect.
I will put on the white dress,
the red beads, some earrings, a belt.
I will pad myself out
leave you with someone else
for the first time.
Someone who can’t bear to look
crouches under the bed.
Once you’re out
they wash you, weigh you,
put you in a plastic basket and leave.
Only me now with two old sows
who grunt over my carcass,
clean between my legs,
knuckle soap into my armpits
while they talk about going to market,
the abattoir, the price of pig.
For the next nine weeks,
I believe my head
has slipped off my neck,
but I must make the effort,
must smarten myself,
straighten my aching back,
My split pubic bone will reconnect.
I will put on the white dress,
the red beads, some earrings, a belt.
I will pad myself out
leave you with someone else
for the first time.
Page(s) 13
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