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This poem is taken from PN Review 219, Volume 41 Number 1, September - October 2014.

‘Nothing That Hasn’t Been Said Before’ Helen Tookey
Signs of the supermarket: an internal conflict.
Larks sing with her mother’s voice
like smaller versions of themselves.

What higher certainty of purpose? As the pigs do,
bickering within pre-existing configurations
(myself included, I hasten to add).

The inevitable pitfall our day-to-day,
our heavy flesh: a well-known infection.
It suggests a gift to the gods,
having to spit out the venom again and again.

A reasonable breakfast
entered my thinking about him,
based on the myth of Orpheus
before it was adopted by little girls.
This is not a bad thing.

Moles rebreathe.
...


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