101 other uses for a guillotine

by Line Ford

it’s not personal

if an acrobat tumbling

spreads lies like snow

and you wake

to taste rind 

where once there was fruit

when you free a small bird

and it shits on your hand

it’s not personal

wipe it on the bonnet

of a rich man’s car

spool out some fun

it’s not personal

if they do not shoot you

instead of the hero

I saw your future

while you were counting

grains of sand.

Line Ford is a poet, writer & maker of visual poetry from Barmouth, Wales. She works part-time running Kurdish linguistic rights projects. Line publishes a ‘zine for street-sleepers in Bristol called @now_you_zine_it Her translations of Turkish and Kurdish poetry have been published by Palewell Press, Smokestack Books and Parthian. Bluesky, Instagram, Website (she/her)

Image credit: Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944) Tree of Knowledge No. 5 (1913-1915) Artvee.com