Verona Charman

Autopastoral: So I’m alive

and he looks at me
                                    like the corpse we
found in the clearing, wound round the
roots of a douglas fir, covering his mouth
at the odour of rotting and late spring’s
wild garlic                   he tries to catch
his dimming reflection in the remains
the carmine crushed beneath the body
stiff, silvery, too small and breathless
to care for—its tail arched back to its
forehead                       he has no interest
in the gash, half a dozen splinters
running from its arms to paralysed legs
half hidden by the trampled carpet of
bluebells, still              he finds himself
weeping in the gouge across my side
watching a name lost in the blood
between his teeth.

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Verona Charman is a previously unpublished poet and trainee teacher based in the New Forest, UK. They recently graduated in English and Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School, working with particular interest in queer pastoral writing. Their work can be found @verzrc on Instagram.