Francesca Havens
When I undress for the artist
for Paul
Between my legs is cherry red,
my womb appears in leafiest green,
yellow deer antlers - Fallopian tubes -
link polka-dot ovaries in china blue.
My belly is definitely Pollock-splashed,
and snowflakes fall in night-sky lungs,
raising my breasts; one delicate pink,
the other soft and furry - natural mink.
My feet are the colour of quicksand,
legs swaying kelp in a blue-green sea;
scattering creamy blossom, a dark
bough shoots up my golden back.
Cool moss arms cushion autumn leaves,
ending in silver-flutter hands, moths’ wings,
open sky-blue face above, fleeting clouds,
around a coral mouth.
Just a tiny space
left between the shoulder blades
to paint a butterfly.
Page(s) 48-49
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