VIII. Strength

we find ourselves in places
by Megan James

sitting backwards on the seat
in someone else’s lap; i wear
hindsight like a hideous badge.
neglected spaces: alleyways,
car parks, cul-de-sacs. the city
is fit to burst with our dolorous
dance & its strange shades of sin.
    suspension
          sounds
metal, glass & plastic—nothing
but a handbrake between us;
the glovebox, holding secrets
& a hand that seizes the hook
for dry cleaning, as if for dear life.

Megan James (she/her) received her English BA from the University of Exeter in 2018 and completed her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent’s Paris School of Arts and Culture in 2019. Her poetry focuses on issues surrounding feminism and the female medical body, drawing on her personal experience as a sufferer of chronic illness. Her work has been featured in The Hellebore, Eunoia Review, Projector magazine, The Menteur, and Molly Bloom, and she was shortlisted for the Creative Ink Writing Competition in 2016.