Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for organs in your body
[Step One]
This time she knows not to repeat her mistakes, picks
thoughts as if plucking feathers from newly-killed birds
until their punctured skin rises to meet her palms. This time,
she says, mouth moving so in sync with words whirring
in her head a duet slides in and out of melody. This time
is not the same. She thrusts bloodied fingers to her lips,
stands back from the sink, chicken entrails slick on the lino,
reaches inside for her own innards, lets them unspool until
she can’t see which heartbeat is hers. She tells the walls,
the cupboards, the locked-fast door that her heart has shrunk
so small it no longer shows its weight on kitchen scales ‒
watches her lungs slowly deflate in their own irrelevance.
Abegail’s recent collection is The Skin Diary (Nine Arches). Her debut, How to Pour Madness into a Teacup, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize. In the Curator’s Hands is new from IDP. She’s “One of the Five British Poets to Watch in 2017” (Huffington Post), blogs at The Poetry Shed and is co-editor of Against the Grain Poetry Press.
atriumpoetry.com 