HER FATHER

Nasim Luczaj

cuts our wood

stacks it in the shed

 

gossips in the breaks

never knocks

 

points at a broccoli

and asks what it is

 

comes over

with a rifle

 

to kill himself with

and my dad sits him down

 

in the kitchen

till it’s passed

 

we see him

on the hill

 

swaying between road

and ditch

 

moon always full

eyes shining

 

as if a snail had run

its body over them

 

the moon

colonising him

 

the way cordyceps

take over ants

 

make them leave

their nests

 

eat them up

and shoot

 

a fruiting body

from the head

 

but then

he’s himself

 

won’t drink again

until the moon

 

comes back

without knocking

 

chops the yard

into view

 

aims

its rifle

 

Nasim Luczaj is a poet and Polish—English translator based in London. She is the author of HIND MOUTH (Earthbound Poetry Series) and the winner of the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry. She has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and the Alpine Fellowship. Her work has appeared in PROTOTYPE 5, Propel, Gutter, DATABLEED, Tentacular and others.