Helena Nelson runs HappenStance Press, which is based in Scotland and publishes poetry pamphlets and a few full collections. She is the author of How (Not) to Get Your Poetry Published.
That Time
It was a time of chewing and chewing,
chewing the meat supposedly stewed,
chewing the meat that wouldn’t get swallowed,
pushing it into my cheek (it came back).
I bit it in two. It chopped and re-formed
and I was the meat, chewing and yellow,
stewing forever inside my own cheek.
Bits of my mouth were chewed in with it,
chewing and chewing for hours and days.
I wanted to vomit, the churning began
and so I spat it, discreetly spat it
into the hanky concealed in my hand.
The meat had gone, it had gone, it had gone
and another whole plateful was looking on.