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After<\/strong><\/p>\n When you go to the supermarket<\/p>\n place my head in your wire basket<\/p>\n as you wander the aisles of meat.<\/p>\n Be careful my hair does not brush<\/p>\n the sign of two for the price of one.<\/p>\n Let check-out girls catch my eye.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Keep me close and always visible,<\/p>\n you never know when you will need<\/p>\n to raise me up as a bloody trophy,<\/p>\n to rouse shoppers from their torpor.<\/p>\n Never take lightly the authority given<\/p>\n when you show what victory means.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Guard me from thieves.<\/p>\n If I were stolen how could you prove<\/p>\n that a god and right and butchery are,<\/p>\n and always will be, on your side?<\/p>\n Insure me, but a policy of like for like<\/p>\n may cost far more than you can pay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Post my decapitation up on YouTube,<\/p>\n followers want to see the neck bowed,<\/p>\n the thought severed from the deed.<\/p>\n Become the poster-girl for deliverance,<\/p>\n the strong woman\u2019s role in pay-back,<\/p>\n the lesson about listening to a deity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Artists never see the flicker in the eyes<\/p>\n as you hack and saw through bone.<\/p>\n \u2018Two blows\u2019 was their hyped publicity.<\/p>\n Most portray the moment before,<\/p>\n the moment after; the moment itself<\/p>\n disappears up the magician\u2019s sleeve.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speak softly to me at three a.m.<\/p>\n Whisper sweet names you gave me.<\/p>\n Tell me other secrets; I know<\/p>\n about the knife you use to prise<\/p>\n my fingers from your heart,<\/p>\n the axe I take to your soul.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the \u2018Black Painting\u2019 Judith and Holifernes by Goya<\/em><\/p>\n Tom de Freston<\/strong> has been the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at Cambridge University and the Levy Plumb Artist in Residence at Christ\u2019s College. Tom has had a numerous solo shows in London and Cambridge.<\/p>\n
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