The Ofi Press Magazine

Poem by Agnes Marton (Hungary/ Luxembourg)

Artwork (produced in response to the poem) by Rusudan Gobejishvili Khizanishvili (Georgia) 

Published in The Ofi Press issue 38. 

My Skin

It was the year of goose bumps and blushes.

It was the year when I got aware.

Snake-fences shed their fading rashes,

the graffiti said: PLUS JAMAIS L’HIVER.

Moisturized, cleansed and exfoliating,

ready to take the needles, the ink,

throbbing skin, spread, even canal-pored, flat,

greeting the words: FEAR NOT, FIND ME FIRST.

While threading one cover, I cocooned another

and swallowed the song I was humming along.

Before and after — tattoos brought cluster.

Blisters and blessings had got me wrong. 

All artwork has been produced in response to "My Skin" by Agnes Marton.

Agnes Marton is a Hungarian-born poet, Reviews Editor at The Ofi Press Literary Magazine, and linguist. She has been working in academic, art, and EU law publishing since 1991. Most recent publications include 'Sculpture/poésie' (France); 'Gateway: an Artists’ Time Capsule' (USA); ‘Penning Perfumes’ (UK), 'Estuary: A Confluence of Art and Poetry' (USA, poetry editor and contributor; got the Saboteur Award 2013 as Best Mixed Anthology); 'Shorelines' (UK); ‘Lines Underwater’ (UK); 'Drifting Down the Lane' (USA; shortlisted for the Saboteur Award 2014 in the Best Anthology category); 'Exquisite Duet' (USA), 'Glitter is a Gender' (UK). Recent commissions include 'Double Bill' (UK), ‘Like This Press Austen/Bronte/Shakespeare Anthology’ (UK), 'Telephone' (USA). Marton has been in collaboration with American/Japanese artist painter Midori McCabe and Polish artist painter Malgorzata Lazarek. These collaborations have been showcased in London art magazines. Composer Daniel Lee Chappell wrote music for one of her poems, and it was performed by the BBC Singers during the St Magnus International Festival, Orkney, Scotland. 'Guardian of the Edge', her forthcoming poetry exhibition (scheduled for November, 2014 at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg) is going to showcase brand-new artworks by forty top international artists, all inspired by her poetry.