Fruitful - Helen Sulis Bowie

at the end of it all they told me that you /were a cluster of cells, nothing more / while I had

you, everything but you / was a cluster of cells, where I was / held / close /and I loved you

from year / zero / tolerance / the language of policing /applied to my body / and yours /

forbidden / fruits / don’t drink / don’t smoke / don’t stand / don’t sit / don’t paint the nursery /

don’t don’t don’t / don’t eat the forbidden / fruit / on a chart marks the weeks / 4 poppy

seed / 5 apple seed / 6 sweet pea // you were a sweet pea when i met you and you’ll

always be a sweet pea / 7 blueberry / 8 raspberry / 9 green olive / 10 prune / 11 lime /

sharp / sour / 11 lime / 11 lime / forbidden fruit / grows no more//

Bio:

Helen Bowie (they/she) is a poet, performer and charity worker based in London. Their debut pamphlet of playable poetry and poetic games, WORD/PLAY was released by Beir Bua Press in July 2021. Helen loves mayonnaise, hates writing about herself, and is Extremely Online at twitter.com/helensulis