She kicked a hole in the base of her bed;
drove the petal valance through with her boot;
a livid thrust, enough to make a space
to hide her secrets in – a locked red book,
letters scribbled in invisible ink,
a tissue balled up tight and slipped behind
the wooden slats that hold her when she sleeps
and drop her when she dreams. Two wisdom teeth
jangle in her mouth. She shakes with being
right. The handsome dentist pulls, hauls them out,
says the bleeding will soon stop, plugs the gap
with cotton wool. The waste bin drips bloodied
rags for days. You tell her it needs a stitch –
she knows your hand has pried under her sheets.
Stephanie Conn is the author of Copeland’s Daughter (Smith/ Doorstep), The Woman on the Other Side, Island and off-kilter, all published by Doire Press. Her recent PhD explored the poetry of chronic illness. Stephanie’s prizes include the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing. She will be one of the 2023 resident artists at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.
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