Two Poems by Gwyneth Lewis

Rogue Female

‘It’s me or you. I have prepared
with tireless discipline, and feats
of the bladder unusual in women
for your approach. Right now
a catapult with a fountain-pen bolt
is trained on your eye which, I see
from your fear, is a distinctive
green. This nib, filed fine,
will enter your brain. If you haven’t
been hunting me, you won’t be hurt
by my words. Move slowly now...
much depends on your answer’.

Note: ‘Rogue Female’ draws on Geoffrey Household’s 1939 cult thriller Rogue Male, in which a failed assassin goes to ground to confront his pursuer.

The Long Crawl up Humanity’s Beach

‘Strange sea-creature that I have become, seeing light
through ice cataracts, legs wasted, amphibious, drawing in air
like knives to my proto-gills, lips blue, fingers wrinkled, unable
to understand the shouts and gestures of people
who run down the sand towards me, bearing colourful towels,
flasks, reassurance. They seem pleased to see me…
I look up, blunt-eyed, through a freezing headache.

Warm me too quickly, I’m dead. Leave me cold
beneath a tarpaulin because now is the time
of most danger, while life is returning’.

Gwyneth Lewis’s First Rain in Paradise is published by Bloodaxe in March 2025. Nightshade Mother: A Disentangling, a memoir about emotional abuse, appeared from Calon in 2024 and was a Guardian Book of the Year.