Audio: Read by the author.
I pace the cracked suburban paving.
Fiats gust, lizards flick, Jesus
Christ: that ankle-speck of a rat hound
bashing the railings, baying. My heart
a rib-crash cage—
each time, Son of God, and then
the plum tree
(have mercy on me), gnarled by the gates
of the coffee-cup factory. I, a sinner
fallen as these yellow fruits,
meshed by feet, slippery, pecked,
am rotting down to dried out pips,
Lord…
Maria Apichella’s Psalmody (Eyewear) was shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize and Wales Book of the Year and included in the New Statesman Books of 2017. Paga won the 2014 Cinnamon Press Pamphlet award. www.mariaapichella.com