Hardship

by David Hanlon

Jan Canty

Unravelling does its dirty work again, and I ossify into a walnut shell, a slab of marble, cubic boron nitride, shout at the wrong things, how they left us: foals wading through crocodile-infested rivers, our insides deluged with shunned tears.

Once, a boyfriend took my hands & moisturised them & it felt like being touched for the first time, it felt maternal.

Now, I macerate into soft putty, life rolling me between its thumb & forefinger, my form made malleable, elastic: ready to build, seal: repair.

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David Hanlon is a poet from Cardiff, Wales. He is a Best of the Net nominee. You can find his work online in over 70 magazines, including Rust & Moth, Barren Magazine & Homology Lit. His first chapbook, Spectrum of Flight, is available for purchase at Animal Heart Press. You can follow him on twitter @davidhanlon13 and Instagram @welshpoetd.