Exercise 1 (by Podium Poet Sarah Perry)
Writer Sarah Perry
A thousand bald patches begin to itch
where - yesterday - I slowly removed
the hair around pubic bones.
Once - at school - a girl called Seren said,
'It's like mowing the lawn,
isn't it?'
I think about that
and about the marks you left
on the back of my hips.
Today the canal is matte,
bacteria-filled
like the rotating tweezers
in the epilator I haven't cleaned yet.
There are two birds on the railings
and I take the path that curls up towards Angel.
You are the fear on the pavement
and the heat in my mouth.
Breakfast tastes the same as yesterday's.