Five of Cups (Reversed)

Claudine Reverses the Five of Cups
by Anna Kisby

The V between my
legs is a bird flown. An old
woman has no sex.
What a relief.

I am all shoulders.
Nobody says What beautiful
clavicles! anymore. I’m grateful for that.
Under my cloak, I fold my crow wings flat.

Feelings live in the guts.
1, 2, 3 I’ve spilled them. Tears
and too many words. I’m told
it’s not too late for change.

I am a fish gasping
on the riverbank. That way, men
cast lines from the bridge.
This way, the open sea.

Cup me. Throw me in.
Then it’s up to the current
and it’s up to me.

Anna Kisby (she/her) is a poet and archivist based in Devon, UK. Her pamphlet All the Naked Daughters (Against the Grain Press, 2017) circles around the lives of real and imagined women: suffragettes, showgirls, artists’ models. Her forthcoming collection will explore historical magical practitioners and supernatural belief, inspired by collaborating on the research project Creative Histories of Witchcraft 1790-1940. She recently purchased her first tarot deck.