Show me where, on the body
I can’t do that, but I can say it feels like a plane in the sky going down. Always, I end up looking just past your left shoulder - pinned to the low flying threat. I’m sorry. I’ve been thinking about focus for as long as I can remember, and yet. This is the second time I’ve stepped out and into the downpour. This is the third time I’ve gotten a bus in the wrong direction. I know I’ve torn at least four muscles trying to look back at you. I’m trying not to get distracted. I’m trying to have some integrity. I’m trying to make my attention meet yours. I’m sorry to ask, but could you point me to the injury? I’ll take a hot iron to each wound and then I’ll try again.
Sarah Lasoye is a poet and writer from London, based in Sheffield. She is an alumna of the Barbican Young Poets, Octavia Poetry Collective, and Apples and Snakes’ Poetry in Performance programmes. She was longlisted for the Jerwood Poetry Fellowship 2021, and her work has been featured in Porridge Magazine, bath magg, The New Statesman, Poetry London & And Other Poems. Her debut chapbook, FOVEA / AGES AGO was published by Hajar Press in 2021. She is represented by Kat Aitken at Lexington Literary, and is currently working to complete an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.