SELF PORTRAIT AS TEENAGED BOY BEATING SWAN
 by Colleen Abel

/ / Issue 4, Poetry

Sometimes you have enough–
the cob, the pen twining

their necks to hearts,
all that fidelity.

The dank pond by the council
flats, like it’s bloody Windermere.

You only wanted to wreck
that love-shape they were making.

After, you sat, sad Zeus, and held
the one you’d caught,

stroking its feathered throat
as if to make it sing.

 

 

 

Issue 4 Contents                                         NEXT: Two Poems by Danez Smith

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