Bloodshot Monochrome

Patience Agbabi

Published by Canongate Books Ltd

Patience Agbabi’s latest collection is charged with the passion, wit and sheer inventiveness we have come to expect from the Nigerian-born poet. ‘Some say poetry+politics = propaganda. That black poet+sonnet = sell-out. I do hope your ‘propaganda’ sells out, continuing the long tradition of both political poetry and black poets engaging with white forms. It’s literary skill that counts: always ask yourself, am I poet enough?’






IN INVISIBLE INK

Imagine the tip of my tongue’s a full
Needle and your back’s my canvas.
I’ll tattoo you a secret if you promise
Never to read it aloud, break the spell
Vibrating in its delicate, intimate Braille.
It’ll remain laced in your skin. Even fierce
Sunlight won’t betray my lemon juice.
In less than a fortnight the scar will heal
But we’ll have words, you’ll set fire to my love
Letter by letter and I’ll imagine somebody
Else, touch-typing the keyboard of your spine,
Imagine our secret smouldering skin and bone.
No. Don’t say a word. My blind eye
Knows how to head my tongue, how to forgive.

(from Bloodshot Monochrome, Canongate, 2008).