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sophie collins

 

Our Mother of Perpetual Health


The hyperphotosynthesised leaves hanging
from the top right
much like the thumb
in Jeff Koons’ 1986 Bacardi advert
resemble a flaccid dick

How ironic then the flop
of dark green’s leaning in
towards the wet tip of a Latin cross
hard as a pencil
there and everywhere
notable mainly
in this context
for the incongruity of the front-facing
rose window almost Pagan

 

 

papal tiara


First I was this, and then I was that
First I was a granule of pepper
on some dolt’s midsummer meal
and then I was data before becoming
something altogether more tenuous
An Arabic business card
The true horror of the room reflected
in the paperweight:
mangénue with camera
dimensions those of Holbein’s skull
Looking not very closely
I soon found the secret of The Little Street
in the left-hand doorway
and the new new moon hanging above
as good hope
Here is the ink print
Here is the archival jet
The clouds now broken
I spoke Dutch freely
Merry Christmas +
Love to you

 

 

 

 

Sophie Collins is co-founder and editor of tender, an online quarterly promoting work by female-identified writers and artists. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry, Poetry London, The White Review, Ploughshares, Poetic Series (Sternberg Press), Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt), Best British Poetry 2015 (Salt), and elsewhere. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2014, and is now editing Currently & Emotion, an anthology of translations to be published by Test Centre in late 2015. She is an Associate Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.