by Edward Lee
How many years of bad luck
And there comes a singing in the wire
As we walk it – so much under tension now
That nothing is spared. The light you sought
Is not some holy sheet. It is sliced to polygons
And I am struggling to match any edge.
All our hands are full of the puzzle
And beginning to obscure the mirror
With an insistence of blood. Think of it
As something like a kaleidoscope – the eye
Giddy on red and silver, creating palaces
From a fatal smash. Turn it gently
In any direction you like. We could live
Inside it, this tube of broken memory,
Meet only our own gaze, in a tunnel
where we rattle to reflective stillness
and the great darkness moves around us.
Ankh Spice is an Aotearoa New Zealand poet, author of The Water Engine (Femme Salvé Books, 2021). His poetry is widely published, eight times nominated for Pushcart Prize/Best of the Net. He’s a poetry contributing editor at Barren Magazine and co-edits at IceFloe Press. You’ll find him at www.ankhspice-seagoatscreamspoetry.com, on Twitter @SeaGoatScreamsPoetry or on Facebook @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry
Edward Lee is an artist and writer from Ireland. His paintings and photography have been exhibited widely, while his poetry, short stories, non-fiction have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, Feral, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. He is currently working on two photography collections: Lying Down With The Dead and There Is A Beauty In Broken Things. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com