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the poet
Briony Collins is a writer, artist, and performer based in North Wales. Her career began when she won the 2016 Exeter Novel Prize. Since then, she has published numerous poems and stories, produced plays, and received the 2018 Under-25s Literature Wales Bursary. Briony enjoys illustrating her own work and performing on stage. She is represented by DHH Literary Agency.
the poems
taid taught me
how to open corked wine bottles:
twisting a fusilli knife deep
and prying the bone from
a long, green spine until
the tetric body pops.
whenever i drink
i remember this, meaning
we will always be merry
past when he’s gone
and we can pretend that
the darkness won’t come
for us even though
it is coming all the time.
Newborn
Petals of your fingers around mine;
Hibiscus closing around moonlight.
Liberty
Based on William Sidney Mount’s painting
The Power of Music (1847)
Violin strings mark
mayflower fingers
while mine blister.
We smile together
and smoke our pipes
down to embers.
Toes tap the same
southern rhythm:
them, in the stables,
me, outside with the
horses, whistling
intimations of liberty.
Publishing credits
taid taught me: exclusive first publication by iamb
Newborn: Black Bough Poetry Broadsides: ‘gold lit hour’ (Issue 1)
Liberty: Agenda Magazine (Vol. 52, Nos. 3-4)