Choosing Sides
The other guy is down and I feel
nothing
carnal blood—metallic film on my tongue, fireballs building in my gut,
rising as I watch your feet ricochet through the mat.
I swallow and am silent,
you are eagle-eyed and defensive
Any blow on your skin
Punctures my own:
humanity lives in packs;
I only love my own.
Everyday Superwoman
I’ll overdose on Italian biscuits
for the principle
of sacrificing variety over endorsing overly-priced snacks
on a subpar airline.
I’ll go through bladder discomfort
for the principle,
of avoiding a tourist trap,
€1.50 for relief.
I’ll put on my face of disapproval
for the principle
to protest those bags on seats, those misbehaving children, flight delays, bashed luggage, rude staff, sit-down fees and service charges because I am the QUEEN of the small protests—
someone’s got to do it
and I’ll make that small hero me.
Big Eyes
Once upon a time a big-eyed girl
with tightly-coiled baby hair
went to big school,
armed with pink Barbie glasses
and a smile
(no one smiled back).
Maybe they’d have smiled
if she’d had Ted Baker gloves, like Georgia.
While the boys developed a language of grunts on the football pitch
and the girls monkey-mimicked hairstyling initiations,
the big-eyed girl faltered between the two camps
and finger fumbled through the motions of a plait.
Isabelle Kenyon is currently a northern U.K. based poet. Isabelle is the author of This is Not a Spectacle, The Trees Whispered (Origami Poetry Press), and Digging Holes to Another Continent (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York). She is the editor of Fly on the Wall Press, a small press for charitable anthologies, the latest of which is Please Hear What I’m Not Saying, which raises money for U.K. mental health charity Mind and came runner-up for Best Anthology at the Saboteur Awards in 2018. Her poems have been published in many poetry anthologies, such as The Road to Clevedon Pier and The Inkyneedles. She has had poems published in literary journals such as The Blue Nib, Foxtrot Uniform, Mojave Heart Review, Bonnie’s Crew, The Pangolin Review, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Eskimo Pie, Scrittura, Anti-Heroin Chic, Bewildering Stories, and Literary Yard.
