Mario Petrucci

Side by side

everyone begins as fish &

ends so – spiralling after
egg (that other half of our
chains) & setting gills

in gristled knot that buds
legs as tadpoles do & blow-
hole ears halfway down

the back & low-set eye
alien as featherless chick –
ah we have peered into

that shared ovum whose
blasto-flesh runs its gauntlet
of fowl & fish so fused at

the tail nothing can be told
apart – is this why when i am
late i find in upstairs dark

you – on placenta duvet &
hunched round self as wom-
bed ones are? – as though

i had just returned from
all eternity to catch you
naked out sleepwalking

space without even
navel-twisted purpled
rope to hold you

Mario Petrucci

(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1958)

Mario Petrucci is a prolific and powerful poet, known for his themed collections that explore love and loss, scientific consciousness, the natural world and the complexities of warfare.

His poetry is often situational, taking inspiration directly from a key historical site, such as Southwell Workhouse in the volume Fearnought, or the region around Chernobyl in Heavy Water and Half Life. Ecology...