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twelve sexts by Poppy Cockburn

1.

you look into the mirror

into my wet eyes

there

i’m only an image of desire

you could do anything

2.

my breath is quick when you’re online

[a looping gif of trotting hooves]

3.

fantasy:

you’re a shadow

i’m a bright void

waiting to be fucked

in monochrome

everything half-beautiful

strobe lit

occasionally you grant me glimpses

of your life in technicolour

4.

i’m an animal

5.

the garden gates swing open

as you drag me across the threshold

apples rain down

from the violet sky

rolling beneath us

overripe

the air is dense

6.

do you want to take a picture?

7.

things that are red are

undergarments crumpled flowers

torn off and discarded

cabernet sauvignon dregs

scratched surfaces

impressions

8.

hairs pattern the bedsheet in swirls

from where they were gripped

then shook loose

being held by you now

seems almost counter-intuitive

9.

fun is

subjective

10.

what is romance anyway

if not a necklace

if not the edges of death?

11.

[a photograph]

luminous strands of white

dash my pale thighs in the darklight

the colour of innocence

glinting

12.

remember me as someone’s child

remember the first girl you loved


_______________


Poppy Cockburn is a London-based communications professional working in the visual arts and writing poetry on the side. Her poems have previously been published by Black & Blue, Dust Poetry Magazine and Rough Trade Books. Her debut pamphlet is due to be published by Invisible Hand Press in 2021. She tweets via @poppypersonism


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