An extract from Cai Draper’s new pamphlet, sing & hide, published by Bad Betty Press in November 2022.
Single Form
after Barbara Hepworth
The sculpture is of me. A monolith
born of London turf. Blue, green,
dun gold teetering. And this curiosity –
its main feature is a perfect circular
space, a lack where
metal was. The words I’ve flung
through there: fear, shame, rage
shaped in the rank expression
of language to take flight.
If you know the secret to why we sing
and hide our faces, I am listening.
1800pt
after Fiona Banner
It’s hard to believe
they are, in fact, without
language. A full stop
(I didn’t know what that was
exactly): a pause or end
a breath in between. The people
might be the letters. Becoming real.
Solidifying. Like a sentence
from which the words have been removed, these
things have just popped out from fiction.
They made my father realise
how beautiful the trees are.
‘Single Form’ was previously published by in the Poet’s Directory. ‘1800pt’ was previously published in Unlost Journal.
