Her Mother Quizzes Her About Fruit
She says, Yes, I’ve tasted pomegranates
and I know what they do. The sense of vertigo:
happily dizzy at first, as if you’ve downed
a bottle of Shiraz or Merlot. You live by night,
dress like a Goth; dark bars and punk rock.
There’s a man of course, stone-strong
with raven eyes, a man you can hunt,
not seeing you are the prey. Not seeing
the bait, the iron-toothed trap,
not seeing the scent of him’s already
drugged you asleep, dragged you down
to a place so deep no splinter of light
can get through. And no way up,
no going back till the season turns.
Chrissy Banks lives in Exeter. She co-hosts Uncut Poets with Alasdair Paterson and facilitates two Contemporary Poetry Reading groups. Her most recent publications are Frank (2021 smith/doorstop) and The Uninvited (2019 Indigo Dreams).