Poem 464

This was written for Panic! the solo show Rebecca Rodden, Petra Massey and I created for Petra to perform here in New Zealand and on the festival circuit in Canada and the UK … we started the development of Panic! by each writing separately and this is one of the things I came up with that ended up not being in the show … I was after a folk tale feel here and writing from the point of view of a woman (as I knew Petra would be performing it) …

( I like the shift from third to first person at the end … the apples and bread, winter riding on her back, a silence sharp enough to cut … )

The Woman And Death

Once a woman was starving
there was no bread upon the trees
or apples in the ground
winter rode on her back
and hissed in her ears
so she couldn't sleep
hunger was her child
deep in her belly making free with its fists
there was a silence on the world
that cut her feet

one day
hunger like a black tap in her guts
she couldn't turn off
she saw a sparrow clinging
to a barren branch

don't touch me
                            said the sparrow
I'm death

but the woman took the sparrow
and put it between her legs
to hold it fast

you can't hold me
said the sparrow
                                   I'm death

the woman squatted
holding the scrawny skinny sparrow
between her legs
she raked together twigs
lit a fire
boiled some water in a pot

you can't cook me
                                      said the sparrow
I'm death

the woman pulled the sparrow
from between her thighs
put him in the pot with a stone
to hold him down
and she boiled and boiled
and boiled

but when the woman drained the pot
held him to her mouth
the sparrow said

you can't eat me
                                 I'm death


I know who you are
                                       I said
I eat you every day

and I bit his fucking head off