Superwoman - a found poem ♀

(with thanks to a Women’s magazine for all the words)

Somewhere, nowhere, blood orange,

strong, empowering and upbeat. Let’s make this

about you, let’s build the future together. 

Does your daily routine match up to Coco Chanel? 

A teal bag from £16,000, monochrome £2,200, 

two-tone only £5,300. We’re the ones getting

everything ready and I’ll clean up at the same time.

Palette pop, scan with Fendi, experience the new

complexion enhancing ranges. We need to befriend

our madwoman, our inner critic, try ribcage jeans.

Here’s something you need to know, everyone

can benefit from ceramides. Check out my latest video;

the secrets to the best brows yet. Powerful, alluring,

female strength finds its voice in perfumery. 

It’s time to move on from Elephant’s Breath,

paint the ceiling in full gloss to bounce light around

the room. Are you running yourself into the ground?

I am officially brain-dead. I don’t want to talk

to anyone when it’s all over. The show must go on.

You are not still doing that are you? The fluff

really gets between your toes, buy less but buy

better. You might not have heard but the most blah

of shades is the biggest trend. Which shade are you?

Have you ever considered that your thoughts might

be what’s causing your stomach flare-up? Dream big

with this season’s luxurious shoes and bags. Look

for silk-satin and pleats to create a satisfying swoosh.

The new season defined for you, visibly reduces 

wrinkles in just two weeks, and of all the trends to embrace

this creates a soft focus, glass skin and blurred lips.

We want to have a real moment, create a real emotion,

our good girl is a woman with a mission, book a celebration

of femininity, subject to availability while stocks last.

© Denise Blake

Words from last Sunday's Style Magazine, Sunday Times

Denise’s third collection, Invocation was published by Revival Press, Limerick Writers Centre. Denise is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany RTE Radio 1. She facilitates creative writing workshops.

Under Darkness

He pecked out their eyes,

kept their unseeing as trophies.

And not only to his young prey,

he had a way of blinding the elders

with a feathered sheen. He hacked out

childish tongues so they couldn’t tell,

gouged out all ears until the unspoken

secrets were not heard. The harmless

scarecrows couldn’t protect his chosen prey.

Perched on high, he held a wide view

of the layout of the parish, could see

who was vulnerable, who wasn’t guarded,

who could be snatched up as fresh prey

right out from their open-doored homes.

The darkest in the roost all knew,

shared his caw, caw with each other,

passed around younger carrion as new prey.

They joined in with the murder of souls.

He talked of evil, as if it lay far removed

from his hovering deeds, never under

his cunning wing. They were “young friends”,

not prey. To say he damaged youths,

their vast fields of hope, to say

he tore the limbs of their spirits apart

was for him to eat wild crow.

To say he shadowed his innocent prey,

left their lives like a battlefield, was blocked.

Now he rests in his warm nest, surrounded

by comfort, far flown from his destruction.

And as the young grew into wounded adults

with horror perched unseen on their shoulders,

his claws continued to tear them asunder.

And when they could no longer fight off

swooping memories, who was there to pray?

© Denise Blake

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Denise Blake’s third collection, Invocation was published by Revival Press, Limerick Writers Centre. She is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany RTE Radio 1. She facilitates creative writing workshops.