Miz Quickly’s Cento Poem
Famine Crouches in the Bedsheets
Winter.
Time to eat fat,
to fight against
walls and blankets.
Winter
fixed in a tapestry and
bleaching in the sunset.
Famine crouches in
the horizons you ride,
the space you pass through.
Heroic trails
of beer bottles
and dead birds
on the roadside.
Winter is that cat,
the colour of pewter mornings.
Make it be spring,
a porcelain grin,
berries yellow as Houdini eyes.
Make it be spring, so the air
in front of you blossoms
in conversation with forests
thickened with legend.
But it is winter.
Time to eat fat.
Famine crouches in the bedsheets.
Written for Miz Quickly’s Day 16: Write A Cento Poem and PA: Write a Form Poem. This is a cento poem based on phrases from poetry by Margaret Atwood, found in “February” from Morning in the Burned House, “The Bull Song”, “The Animals in That Country” from Selected Poems 1965-1975, “Backdrop Addresses Cowboy” from Selected Poems 1965-1975, and “Crow Song” from Selected Poems 1965-1975. Image is from WikiArt, Painting, Smoking, Eating by Philip Guston, 1972, Fair Use. © Misky 2021, shared with #apoemaday on Twitter.
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