Cunning

These things I know,
and in knowing, can do;
I am able, and my ability
like my anatomy
is deceitful.

Canniness
is seeing illusion not sin
in the tip of the tongue
the curve of the eye;
the bodies like mine
whipped for their wits.

It is best to be wizened
if wise. A woman
of knowledge writes to hide.
Think secretly, runic, these marks
sacredly stolen.

This text is just
the thin end of the wedge.

 

Heather Holcroft-Pinn (instagram @hhpinn, X @HeatherHPinn) is a poet and live-literature producer from Dartmoor in Devon. Her work has appeared in Magma and Eye Flash Poetry.