This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from my lost womb still sings to me by Jane Ayres (Porkbelly Press 2023).
my lost womb still sings to me
in hollowed-out spider spaces
split
slit
sliced
the imprint of your brittle bleeding exit
becomes an amorphous wound
oscillating residue
that melts constellations
jagged edges privately meeting
folding my breath
in timeless sleep
my craving heart
a supernova
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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