A Poem by Selena Wisnom

Cartonnage

Entropy tends the world to yellow
skin turns to parchment parchment to papyrus
bandaging bruises in bilirubin
as magnolia shrivels like ageing paper.
Your shell retains its olive tone
wrung round in dark locks
as you sleep enclosed in stuccoed poems
discarded scrolls slapped with plaster
dressing you in linen as in life.
Even the painted face degrades
your smile rippling like waves of wheat
flaxen like silk damaged by sunlight
the alchemist that warms and breaks
the aurous elements into air
in fields where trees decay to gold
yet tightly bottled ancient oils
never lose their bitter glow.

Selena Wisnom is a writer and academic specialising in the poetry of ancient Iraq. Her poems have won first prize in The Literateur-TLC poetry competition, and have been published in The Literateur, Mslexia, Blackbox Manifold, and various anthologies. Her book, The Library of Ancient Wisdom, was published by Penguin in 2025.