My Second Person
by and published in Edition Ten of Pomegranate
I felt like a king in my cold shower,
When from the flames I’d saved you both,
When I could have had my way,
When I wanted to drag from the ash
Just one of you.
Because we are symmetrical;
This is no kaleidoscope
Where one eye breaks into one thousand,
We are two eyes reflected.
I can still smell the burning hair,
You both kissed me.
I can still feel the treads in my cheeks.
I have taken a plaster cast and stolen
Just one pair of lips.
I feel your tread on my cheek
And I smell your hair.
I’m in my shower
Washing off the ash and plaster.
Jamie Baxter
Jamie Baxter is 20 and has been writing poetry for four years. He is in his second year at Durham University studying Engineering. He attended Tower Poetry Summer School at Christ Church, Oxford and read at the London Poetry Festival in August. He has been recently published in The Delinquent, Spark Bright, Bottom of the World, and on the website of Read This Magazine, as well as two Durham University publications, The Grove and Forced Rhubarb.