In Conversation

Encounter by S.M. Raza. Courtesy: ArtChowk The Gallery

DDA:

lest we forget
the small atrocities of fear
in the silence of respect:
let us remember those
who did what they’d ever regret.

remember the cowards
as well as the heroes
who claimed glory for a story
fabricated far from the front.

let us be frank:
we’re not all heroes
we’re some of us cunts.

KS:

fear is a grain of sand
bone fragment
beetle of war
hard slick chitin in your heart
eating away

buried there by evolution
reinforced with
every hit, every
baring of teeth

you don’t want to die
you are important
nature’s fodder
for the beetle of fear…

DDA:

tell me at least
when we die
they take our boots off.

KS:

you can
sleep now

the sun goes out
and the vast cradle of space
lulls
your aching atoms

you can
rest now

the dust settles
you are the dust
every aching speck
at peace

you can
forget now

the waters rise
above your head
above your aching bones
and you know
this is the cradle of
completeness

you know

you can
sleep now

~ Delilah Des Anges (DDA) and Kat Soini (KS)

Kat Soini is a Finn living in the UK, trying to keep a foot in each country but falling somewhere in between. An over-educated academic by day, she’s been writing fiction and poetry for a long time and is finally getting organised enough to actually put it out there for strangers to read.

Delilah Des Anges has been writing poetry since 1989 and has published three collections: ‘Know Your Words’ (with Al Kennedy and Amy Kreines); ‘Year Of The Ghost And The Mortuary Remains’; and ‘For The Love of a City’. She lives and works in London.