Border State
Or Through a Glass Darkly
in the black space
is the black face
of a slim black boy or girl
slender black chest
pout of lips
a round that might be a testicle
black as a plum
there are no eyelashes
there are crows that scatter but do not fly away
it is hard to tell in the dark
there is the black sound of the sea
its black-tipped waves
the sound of the deep black sea
its reach like the shadows of pine trees
the iced black of the sea
its smash of black-sequinned human fish
the blackened ankles are like knots in a rope
‘Sweet Jesus,’ we say
‘cover me over’
Cat Woodward is a feminist lyric poet studying for a PhD at UEA. Her thesis explores robot voices and the robot as lyric poetics. Her poetry has been published in Lighthouse, Brittle Star, The Interpreter’s House and S/S/Y/K.