The Ofi Press Magazine

International Poetry and Literature from Mexico City

Sarah Fletcher: 1 Poem Published
 

A Hate Song

 

Still, I am not like him:

politic, useless—

 

paper skin on a single rib

gone bad, God’s 

botched first draft.

 

The lips two flaps 

like broken wings.

 

Quick! No one tell him

the resemblance!

 

He will spend

all night complaining

he can’t fly. 

 

He has enough complaints

to wallpaper the sky—

 

a womb for brains, 

you’d think, the way

he moans.

 

But when his lids

flip open to expose

a soot-grey stone

of eye, 

 

there is no question

he is barren. 

 

Soulless, he’d offer

himself up for 

surgeries he does not need

just to get on TV.  

 

He longs for touch

that much, 

the scrummy boy.

 

I’ll send my sympathy

by way of noise

when he returns.

 

There will be silence.

 

 

Poem by Sarah Fletcher (USA/ UK) 

Published in Issue 34 of The Ofi Press

About the Poet

Sarah Fletcher was born in America but grew up in London. At fourteen she kickstarted her literary career with publication in The London Magazine. She received The Christopher Tower Poetry Prize in 2012 and 2013 (placing first, and then second) and 2012 was a Foyle Young Poet of the Year. She has read at Royal Festival Hall and The Institute of Contemporary Arts and had her work displayed at the Olympic Park and The Poetry Café, among other places. She is currently studying English Literature at Durham University. 

Image used under Creative Common Laws from Geraint Rowland: "Alone on the Bridge"