𝕀𝔾ℕ𝕆ℝ𝔼 𝔼𝕍𝔼ℝ𝕐𝕋ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝕀’𝕍𝔼 𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔻 𝔹𝔼𝔽𝕆ℝ𝔼

Poppy Cockburn

Dank powder rain gives way to wet revelation:

though I’ve begun the process of prizing myself highly,

a smear in an unset oil painting adds something,

a glitch in a system.

A fire drill opens up a window for performative shivering.

Jumping from one cafe date to the next isn’t a cinematic way to live

is what I find printed in a book.

I’ve stopped trusting in postured fact. I prefer to lucky 8 —

I always want the soup of the day, even if it’s not to my taste

or burns my buds. I hate repressing.

The Duchess looked everywhere, till he ended her…

I’m grateful to live in the tropical suburbs

beyond the purgatory of a red drape or false wall.

In such a terrifying world of informed evil,

why pretend not to fancy Monica Bellucci?

Anyone with a finger in the ass of culture ought to really.

I might be lying, towelling my hair dry,

having a coke with no one.

Poppy Cockburn is a writer based in Margate, UK. Her latest chapbook, Liquid Crystal Lovesick Demon, came out with Broken Sleep Books in 2023. Elsewhere, she’s been published by Anthropocene, Perverse, SPAM, If a Leaf Falls press, Rough Trade Books, NEW: The Journal of American Poetry and others.

@tru_romank