Inside the Mirror

the water / on your hands / never / be clean / your life / a damn spot / turn the tap / increase the pressure / friction / isn’t enough / a sense of judgement / a useless soap / all dried up / hand / a coalpit / marred fingernails / lick / the charcoal of living / need fear / then the smell / the blood / never denied / whose blood / hands so aged / the blood / kintsugi wrinkles / the bowl / a menstrual cup / every day / morning blood / the eyes / lacerated on a reflection / looking away / blunts the feeling / not the memory / closed eyes / a hypnotism / of sorts / no safe word / no three-two-one-and-you-back-in-the-room / the room never left / the mirror / portable in the mind / break / the mind / bad luck though / you’re afraid / the others / their eyes

 **

A Sighting

From three doors away, you see
a friend coming out of a shop.
You smile, and start walking,
then are stopped by the friction
of memory: your friend is dead,
this person is an apparition,
and the whole day drops.

 **

Embryogenesis

Here in the plateau of the season, I am a broken egg, cracked against the side of the day and left to fizz in the morning heat. My sibilation melts out through the open window, everyone can hear me blistering, as a pond’s surface might protest against the temperature, surrendering invisible ringlets of steam to the balm. Transform me, bring me from the night of my shell to the fresh and open intercourse of the pan, sear me with fire so that I may be read to greet the slings and arrows of the enemy’s knife, the ever-questioning fork.

The wound can only
achieve healing
by accepting hurt.

 **

A Senior Deviance

older men
posting pictures
of younger women
on social media

beseeching you
to comment on
their beauty 

an arrow
pointing to
the breasts

an icon
inviting you
to imagine
unzipping a dress

technology
building another wall
around womanhood

 —————————–

Colin Dardis’s recent poetry collections include with the lakes (above/ground press, 2023) and What We Look Like in the Future (Red Wolf Editions, 2023). A neurodivergent poet, editor and sound artist, he currently co-hosts the Poetry Poetry open mic night in Belfast, and is editor of the poetry blog, Poem Alone.