Outside the treatment room the spring sky’s monitor has switched from dead screen grey to the neon pixillation of new leaves’ growth as magnolia blooms flicker into efflorescence white hot satellites deflecting the sun’s laser beams from the tender skin of their exposed petals Inside the treatment room it is nuclear winter a blue spring sky is projected onto its blank grey clinical ceiling as I lie prone to its voyeur stare canopied by phosphorescent cherry blossom under the metal-boughed linear accelerator’s gamma rays scorching my breasts like wilted petals Outside the treatment room it is still spring as magnolia blooms wallpaper the sky with their radiant screenshots as streets and gardens roll like silent film past my car window but inside the treatment room my breasts bloom pink in its winter sun flaccid blushing scorned by other petals
Kate Meyer-Currey lives in Devon. A varied career in frontline settings has fuelled her interest in gritty urbanism, contrasted with a rural upbringing, often with a slipstream twist. She has over a hundred poems published in print and online journals and anthologies in the UK and internationally. Her poem ‘Gloves’ was in the top 100 of the UK’s Poetry for Good competition (2021) and ‘We got this’ was shortlisted for the 2021 Black in White poetry competition. ‘Boys of Vallance Road’ came third in the poetry category of the London Society’s ‘Love Letter to London’ competition (March 2022). Her poem ‘The Wild Bunch’ is also a Pushcart and Rhysling Award nominee. She has been selected to partner with Little Toller books as part of LiteratureWorks South West’s Talent Development programme. Her chapbooks ‘County Lines’ (Dancing Girl) and ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ (Contraband) are due out in 2022.
The Pine Cone Review 