HOLD THAT TIGER
By Chloe Wilson
That morning, in the mirror,
I’d pulled my draping cheek-skin upward.
I had shone, taut and foreign,
the gums and incisors
glistering with saliva.
While evening and the show crowds gathered,
I watched him. The chain glinked
as he traced his circle,
always stalking - even the grass
shivered under his breath.
Entering the ring, he beckoned
me to dance, laid one
paw on each shoulder
and rolled me in the dirt.
His mouth opened wide
as bedclothes, and I scented
the iron on his tongue
while he hinged his hips
and the crowd thought I was dying.
Tigers like to dine alone.
I knew this; yet stayed a moment
too long, waiting
for an invitation
and was not all that surprised
to find a joint of meat missing
from my thigh.
They hunt by pressing you
to their hearts, then
kicking out your insides
in a casual sweep.
There’s the danger.
Not, after all, in the teeth
but beneath the tail,
which, like a finger,
searches out any pleasures
the front end may have missed.
This one slid
his tongue along the contours
of my bowel,
sniffing like a sommelier.
That night, he cleaned himself
thoroughly, that supple
tongue spreading like a stingray
under the nails
and detailing the groin;
ignoring the crowd
nobly, as they shook
the metal bars
that keep them safe.
‘Hold That Tiger’ is featured in The Mermaid Problem, Chloe Wilson’s first collection that has been published as part of the APC’s 2010 New Poets Series, more details here.
Poet and spoken word performer Emilie Zoey Baker is the winner of the 2006 Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup and multi-slam champion. Emilie featured last year at the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Newcastle Young Writers Festival and at Melbourne’s famed La Mama Theatre as part of their exploration series. Emilie has taught poetry internationally and produced two poetry anthologies Word Up a book and CD collaboration from schools within the City Of Melbourne and The Great Artscape by students at Templestowe Primary and Seniors as part of Artlinks through The City Of Manningham. She has also taught a poetry course at TAFE, CAE and the Carlton Neighbourhood house as well as giving specialty workshops to students from all over Australia, New York, Montreal and Ottawa. Emilie’s first collection of poetry, She Wore the Sky on Her Shoulders, was published in 2003 by Hit and Miss Press.
The APC is looking to get poetry out there to people, places, schools, educational institutions, organisations, cyberspace festivals and events everywhere, so if you have an idea of a way of working with us, or if you wish for us to promote your activity, please give the Centre a call on (03) 9527 4063 or [...]
Tracy Ryan is a WA writer who has also spent some time living in the UK and the USA. Her most recent book of poetry,Scar Revision, and a novel, Sweet, was published by Fremantle Press in 2008. In April this year she won the ABR Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Lost Property’.