ACCORDING TO MARTIN

Simon Maddrell

i love to sit on that garden bench

the one made out of recycled cartwheels

the way i feel about myself

how i wonder about my sibling

sculpted from rock

i blend camaraderie & outrage

like starlings & squirrels

though both are fringed

with grey & regret

the way basil turns bitter-sweet

if cut by a knife

how sometimes sweetness can only be smelt

by ripping things apart

how often i’m torn between

tongue & belly

pink & blue textures

ice cream & cum

the way a spider spins silk

& eats its prey

          he loves to imagine  

what lies beneath it & who

am i playing in this drama

which character       singing what

Simon Maddrell is a queer Manx man, thriving with HIV and living in Brighton & Hove. He’s published in fourteen anthologies and numerous publications including AMBIT, Under the Radar, The Moth, Stand, Butcher’s Dog, The New European, Morning Star, Ink Sweat and Tears & Long Poem Magazine. Simon’s debut, Throatbone, was published by UnCollected Press in July 2020. Queerfella jointly-won The Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition, 2020. Simon, Vasiliki Albedo and Mary Mulholland wrote the anthologies All About Our Mothers (Jan. 2022) and All About Our Fathers (est. Jan 2023) with Nine Pens Press. Simon's third pamphlet, The Whole Island, will be published by Valley Press in July 2023.