Dangling
after Louise Bourgeois
Her head is wound in ropes,
rough-plaited worry skinning her forehead,
coiled apprehension grazing her cheeks.
She cannot reach up to unpick strands –
her arms are pinioned, hands lashed -
only her legs dangle free. Swinging
above ground, she’s a trussed parcel
ready for the spider’s bite. And yet,
held here, there’s calm. No need to do
a thing. She’s found, suspended,
you can be moved by whatever moves you –
no choice to make, nothing to decide.
She spins and waits.
Her head is wound in ropes,
rough-plaited worry skinning her forehead,
coiled apprehension grazing her cheeks.
She cannot reach up to unpick strands –
her arms are pinioned, hands lashed -
only her legs dangle free. Swinging
above ground, she’s a trussed parcel
ready for the spider’s bite. And yet,
held here, there’s calm. No need to do
a thing. She’s found, suspended,
you can be moved by whatever moves you –
no choice to make, nothing to decide.
She spins and waits.
Ann Cuthbert is one of Darlington’s Bennett House Writers as well as a member of the Tees Women Poets with whom she enjoys performing poems for live audiences. Her work has appeared both on-line and in print in publications such as Three Drops from the Cauldron, Ink Sweat & Tears, Paper Swans Press and The Black Light Engine Room Literary Magazine. Her pamphlet, Watching a Heron with Davey, was published in February 2017 by The Black Light Engine Room Press.
No comments:
Post a comment