Fault Line

If you look really closely at me
you’ll see the seam;

there are things needed to make a world:

vinyl records
icebergs
telescopes
short crust pastry
maps
retractable pencils
silver birches
kissing with tongues
ships in bottles
ibuprofen
rock-n-roll
blue whales
handwritten letters
denim
naked dancing
small garden birds
paints
dishwashers

-but these things camouflage
the crack brilliantly.

You could believe
there had never been
that late summer morning
in Chalmers Street, Edinburgh,
when the lady came in
and removed swaddled-me
from your arms.

Christine Marshall is in her first year of the Creative and Life Writing MA, she writes poems and memoir about longing, family and romance. Rock n roll references often creep in. She studied fine art and lives in London.

Hol(e)y Morning

Waking up to presents
Presents you don’t want
Presents you don’t need
Presents you don’t like
Presents you’ll have forgotten by midday

Packed in boxes of fake smiles
Shrouded in wraps of pretended forgiveness
Tied by ribbons of hopes for redemption

Presents you don’t want, need, nor like
Presents you’ll have forgotten by midday
But that might somehow - in their superfluous beauty -
Fill in the dips of your mental landscape with materialism

In a bite, may you give some crunch to your plain life
In a gulp, may you counteract the bitter aftertaste of your yearly failures
In a mouthful, may you shut the deafening tattletale of the emptiness of your life up
In a popped open button, may you soften the edged corners of your sins
In an unbelted buckle, may you tie up doubts of your worthiness of others’ generosity

Soon there will be no leftovers remaining
Soon your spit will have cleansed from justified indulgences
Soon everything through the hole will be gone
Soon nothing will remain but a hole in your wallet and an inflated belly-button

Buy more, consume more, spill more
And spill it over your neighbour who’s got less on their plate
Oh, silent capitalism, holy capitalism…
All is calm, all is bright.

Agathe F. is currently doing her MSc in Music, Mind and Brain, having graduated from UCL in neuroscience and philosophy of mind the year before. Passionate about the human brain and mind, Agathe enjoys writing as a way of exploring these subjects. To her, poetry allows the passage from the abstract world of inner mental processes to the tangible world of paper and words. It brings one closer to their perception, emotions and cognition - and gives insight into the mysteries and wonders of the human psyche, as well as a therapeutic outlet.