XIX The Sun
i run like a goat
tongue-lolled and humping
herbicide free positively molding
i bog-leap and bristle
pick peat from between teeth
cut on bone
want to be
so fucking ugly
rolling fetid
fox-musked but minnow-light
call me monster
i am a half-a-thing
half talking
rattling the bars of a human head
i hold captivity on my hip
wear a back-breaking smile
it hurts to stand on two feet
the shape of shoes
if i lie very still
in tall grass unseen
my legs become the meadow
they thaw
drop away entirely
i go to seed
root-run and tangle i
am lost
let me be
Alice O’Malley-Woods is a poet and researcher based in Lewes, East Sussex. Her work explores themes of loss, ecogrief, and disability. She is the winner of the Black Cat Nature Writing Prize, 2024, and first runner up in the NAWG poetry prize 2016. She is currently completing a PhD in neuroqueer ecopoetics at Brighton University. https://aliceomalleywoods.co.uk/