Postcards From Malthusia CLINICAL TRIAL #2: Anne Symons

Work from the MA Poetry Summer School at Newcastle University

Fading Paper, Lasting Impression

 

To Karina Bondareva, who made a red paper dress

for the #MetGalaChallenge

(May 2020)

 

2 packs of red paper, faded in the sun

2 rolls of industrial cling film

3 rolls of tape

120 glue sticks

 

I admire your ingenuity.

Like our grandparents in wartime

we are forced to be resourceful.

 

I love your pert paper nipples.

Tell me, do they sag if you get damp?

And in the rain will you run red

like blood?

 

 

 

Anne Symons comes from Cornwall and studied at the University of Wales, Swansea. She currently lives in London. After a career teaching deaf children and adults Anne began writing poetry in retirement. Her work has been published in Orbis, Obsessed with Pipework, Ekphrastic Review, Agenda and The Atlanta Review.