Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Claire Potter

Marionettisation

Marionettisation

Marionettisation

That she should have been eating
an apple underground
on the metro at 6am, was not
unusual

I have seen people before
eating on the metro: bread usually
torn from small
paper bags or
thin biscuits
picked from
plastic cylinders,

but this girl, and her reflection,
ate noisily
tearing at the lime skin & mulching
crisp pulp between
open teeth

Bright twigs of apple-
juice toppled from her palm
down her elbow &
into the tongue of a
silent shoe
& my curiosity became an apple
in the heart of a dwindling coal . . .

               but then, there were also her nodding green-black
starfish eyes:

               momentarily crossed on the apple, then peeled back from
forced awakedness
Close

Marionettisation

That she should have been eating
an apple underground
on the metro at 6am, was not
unusual

I have seen people before
eating on the metro: bread usually
torn from small
paper bags or
thin biscuits
picked from
plastic cylinders,

but this girl, and her reflection,
ate noisily
tearing at the lime skin & mulching
crisp pulp between
open teeth

Bright twigs of apple-
juice toppled from her palm
down her elbow &
into the tongue of a
silent shoe
& my curiosity became an apple
in the heart of a dwindling coal . . .

               but then, there were also her nodding green-black
starfish eyes:

               momentarily crossed on the apple, then peeled back from
forced awakedness

Marionettisation

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère