from 'A Man, a Woman, & a Hippopotamus'
(Bloodaxe Books, 23 October 2025)
from SELF-PORTRAIT WITH A BUCKET
Self-portrait with a Hornet
My sister was terrified of hornets.
I made a sign: HORNETS WELCOME HERE!
Self-portrait with a Parrot on My Shoulder
Why is there a parrot on my shoulder
when, number one, I am not a pirate
and, number two,
I prefer lips.
from THE MATHEMATICIAN
The Driver
Idiot! he mutters,
you’ve just wasted
sixteen seconds
of my precious life!
from AGATHA
How Old is Old?
How old is old? As old as the hills?
All I know is, first, it’s really nice
that all of us are growing old together
and, second, the importance of hygiene.
The Petite Housewife
She may be ‘petite’ but she’s so violent
she likes to slash other people’s wrists!
Being Trampled on by Labradors
We don’t mind a bit,
on the contrary
we like the thought of being trampled on,
we like the thought of being old and squashed,
so old and squashed
we won’t know whose our bodies are.
from MEN IN SHORTS
The Musician
When he says Jazz I say Jazz?
Jazz is my idea of a NIGHTMARE!
which is such a stupid thing to say
to someone who’s a serious musician.
Selima Hill was awarded The King’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2022, recommended for her body of work, with special recognition for her 2008 Bloodaxe Books retrospective Gloria: Selected Poems, which draws on ten collections including Bunny (2001), winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award. She has published eleven further collections with Bloodaxe, most recently Men Who Feed Pigeons (2021), which was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Rathbones Folio Prize 2022, and Women in Comfortable Shoes (2023), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her twenty-second book of poetry, A Man, a Woman & a Hippopotamus, is published by Bloodaxe Books in October 2025.