One of the highlights of the monthly Poetry Breakfasts (organised by Saturday Books in Dudley) is hearing the readings of Laura Jane Round, both solo and as part of the gothic poetic duo Poetic Malevolence with Steven C Davis.
Today’s poem is taken from Round’s debut pamphlet ‘The Coveted’ in which they explore consent, personhood and the complicated language of the body. When we first heard today’s poem we were keen to include it here!
Round has been published many times, in places such as the Trickster Anthology, Lumpen Journal (of which they later went on to guest edit), the Beyond Queer Words Poetry Anthology and Sad Girl Review. Since 2022, They are also a competition judge for NYC Midnight (note that the NYC Midnight 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2024 kicks off on 19 April). Round is also the Editorial Director of Tenebrous Texts, a West Midlands-based press specializing in dark and speculative fiction.
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS
I think, if we all look back on those golden years we can remember
Running
At the mercy of those High School Boys.
Pulling down your skirt so they don't see what's underneath
The veneer of sweetener niceness
Fronts for those High School Boys.
High School Boys
A girl cracked her head on the bathroom mirror
In the clutches of those
High school boys.
I feel a hand on my breast, it burns
I need to cut the tumour out there's sores in my mouth from those
High school boys.
I see the mud under the fingernails
I am the dirt under the fingernails of those
High school boys.
Wish I was pretty enough to choose from those
High school boys.
He gropes you mean, hello future husband
High school boys.
High school boys high school boys high school boys-
-You leave
Sweat
Like elixir on his shirtsleeve.
He tastes
He hungers
I bolt
I will never be enough
For high school boys.
© 2024 Laura Jane Round
'The Coveted' and Round's second collection 'TEATH' are available from their website: laurajaneround.co.uk
The previous Sunday Morning Poet, Sallyanne Rock is here→
