This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from my lost womb still sings to me by Jane Ayres (Porkbelly Press 2023).
timeslip
my limpet arm clamps around your slender frame containing
what matters
challenging the shifting sand
my head nestles in the dip of your languid armpit
right hand cups the elegant curve of your
shoulder blade angular bone nudging thin flesh
clinging to the slope of your ribcage jutting hipbone
feeling your blood pulsing heat that spreads to my skin
until I ignite but rather burn than let go & we breathe
together burrowing deeper into the cocoon-safe
haven of our
for a while
moments distillations
gently snoring
ignore the world outside
as slatted sunlight pools the bed
we are all shrinking
UK-based neurodivergent writer Jane Ayres rediscovered poetry studying for a part-time Creative Writing MA at the University of Kent, which she completed in 2019 at the age of 57. In 2020, she was longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize and in 2021, she was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and a winner of the Laurence Sterne Prize. Her first collection edible was published by Beir Bua Press (July 2022). Her micro-chapbook my lost womb still sings to me was published by Porkbelly Press in October 2023. Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications and can be heard on Eat the Storms, Upload, Blue Door to the Cosmos, O Bhéal and Medway River Lit.
Layla Lenhardt is the author of the full-length poetry collection Mother Tongue (Main Street Rag 2023). She is an alumna of the Firefly Farms Residency and a member of the Sundress Reader Board. She is currently working on her second full length poetry collection Little Spoon, and she is an MFA candidate at IU.
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