Italics by Maeve McKenna

Pen twisting 
my fingers 
into knots.
Speech 
from my lips
scalded, 
shrivelling. 
Ice under
lemon frosting
a Slim-Jim —
a toast, 
raise a glass,
smash it 
into
your front teeth,
or a vein.
 I only wanted 
somewhere 
boiling 
for these hands,
a hot page 
to spell
your name. 
In italics.

Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her writing has been placed in several international poetry competitions and published in Mslexia, The Haibun Journal, Fly On The Wall, San Antonio Review, Galway Review, Boyne Berries, Sonder Magazine, Skylight47, 100 Words Of Solitude, Bloody Amazing Anthology, Culture Matters, and widely online. She has work forthcoming in Orbis, Ofi Press, Black Bough Poetry and Rat’s Ass Review.