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By Frances Leviston

Of Tribulation, these are They,
Denoted by the White.
— Emily Dickinson


Pained, permanent
wakefulness


Exposed
in the split geode


a Santa’s grotto
Jagged milk


quartz crusts
constitute


every surface —
a mouth


all teeth
self-sharpening


like sea urchins’ —
“Uncomfortably beautiful”


toughened glass
spikes


in the doorways
of award-


winning offices
 — rough


sleepers from the womb
condemned


to make of anything succulent
rock


of porticoes
iron maidens


Source: Poetry (March 2018)

  • Nature

Poet Bio

Frances Leviston
Frances Leviston’s Disinformation was published by Picador in 2015. She lectures at the University of Manchester. See More By This Poet

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