2026 Competition

Hélène Demetriades

I Swallowed My Father

because I thought he planned to put me in an asylum / because I didn’t hoof his line / because fury needs a full stop / because bleats carry collective sins / because my two-toes skewed his Persian carpets / because my hair trailed in my mother’s soup / because I was extracted from / because I scavenged for loaf cake in our kitchen cupboards / because I might have levitated / because I was unshaped / because of two piercings in one pinna / because I wore my pelt above the knee / because I brought disgrace / because I was too shapely / because I walk towards him / / because I was no longer his kid daughter / because my dewclaws were too long / because he kicked my soft flank / because fury needs to stop

because I walk towards him

    his ashes  –  a giant effigy     pawn     flanked by    rows

        of figures         an Ash Army

            because I walk towards him

          in         time’s                         slow                dissolve

                cinnamon               black pepper

            cardamon     at his neck

                 because I lean towards him

            his  damp  forehead

             softly

                caving in