Mandy Pannett
The Calming of Eels
(To one who left her family to join a cult and a few months later died in a collective suicide pact.)
This smiling on film, this goodbye
fun, did you think you were going to be fed
still singing, to lions? Well fine
if it gives you a buzz I suppose, a video’s
certainly got the edge when it comes to ultimate
words. Can be shredded, that’s true - but it can’t
be answered this side of a grave, and
another thing - when it’s recorded live
like this, well it sticks.
Re-running a tape’s like nicotine, an
addiction.
What finally took you, what secret
need got you to that whispering house?
Thirty nine effigies, neater than towels, meeting
death fully dressed, hair parted, shoe - glossy
with polish and spit - Hey girl, did it suddenly
seen to be all too much, leach - babies and us - one day
growing old, undreaming, falling apart? There’s a method
of comforting eels, you know, small eyes river shielded,
darkness of cool, hands in a calm affirmation
of life, rock cover trust, a hiatus and after -
the knife.
Page(s) 127
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