primrose says I will be her lips
bean says I will be her thighs
broom says I will be be her clitoris
meadowsweet says I will be her fingers
burdock says I will be her arms.
nettle says I will be her tongue
oak says I will be her torso.
hawthorn says I will be her hair,
chestnut says I will be her imagination.

And when she betrays she will be an owl
to swoop over your living and dying
said the sky.

Selected byMaria Mazzenga
Image credit:Sean J. Connelly

Paul Brookes is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull.  His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and  challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: "Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing", (JCStudio Press, 2021) , sonnet collections: "As Folktaleteller",( ImpSpired, 2022), forthcoming "These Random Acts of Wildness, (Glass Head Press, 2022)

 

Web sites:

https://thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com/

medium.com/@PaulDragonwolf1

Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1