Electrotherapy at Steinhof

Under the light of the sanatorium window,
The red curtains impersonate a woman

Wearing her nerves on the outside
Of her dress, like a bridal train.

The door to the machine swings open
And she treads into heated wires;

Filaments sparring between electrodes
Send tremors through her pale blue feet.

Walking to her bed, she can recall nothing
Except when someone at the piano lit a match;

Blooms in the lace, passion flower,
Flaked into a confetti of ash.

 

 

Ellena Deeley is PhD candidate at the University of Exeter. Her thesis explores representations of conjoined twins in contemporary literature and screen media. She was a runner up in the 2015 Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition and specially commended in the Welsh Poetry Competition in 2012 and 2014.