2 poems by Wendy Kyle

my body with me

I’m leaving – reluctantly – I am taking my body

with me – what else should I do with it? not understanding

what a body is – no one does

or we wouldn’t be leaving the mud –

mud where we belong – looking up at a bodiless universe

of which we know less than our own forms –

our own earth

nevertheless, I would like to take

my seed. Seed to seed – this child – our bodies made

who is loved – O love –

in all the muds

Posthuman

a chunk of continent upends its basin

charred divot intemperate in the sea – no choked

herd of any burning species – no trees – no floating bladders, even

mammal fat, humanoid debris, Northern Lights – any

flat starred Holograph

even the promise of a corpse

_______

Wendy has published in: Mslexia, Poetry Salzburg Review; Interpreters House; Ink, Sweat & Tears; POEM; Acumen; Gutter; The Tangerine. She has been shortlisted/commended listed in many international prizes: the National Poetry Competition; Mslexia Women’s Poetry Prize; the Bridport Prize; the Brotherton Prize; the Hippocrates Prize and the Plough among others.