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