Death of an artist II, by Sausan Saulat. Image courtesy of ArtChowk Gallery
It is easier
to be deaf at midnight
than look after these girls
who fall
like petticoats or net curtains
when the wind drops
Three paper rosebuds
strung on an unbreakable thread
Thistles with blue heads
are playing draughts
on a dune of cards
with money spiders who smile
faintly like collectors of plants
My firstborn fell into a net
with square mesh
Black and white white like silver
black like night
~ Alice Rahon, trans. from French by Anna Kisby
Alice Rahon (1904-1987) was a French poet, artist and member of the Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1930s who emigrated to Mexico in 1939. Friend of André Breton and Frida Kahlo, and lover of Picasso, her poetry was published by Éditions Surrealists.
Anna Kisby is a poet based in Devon, UK. Her poems are widely published in UK magazines and anthologies. She won the BBC Radio Proms Poetry competition 2016, Havant Poetry Competition 2016 and she was commended in Faber’s New Poets Scheme 2015-16.
