Frances-Anne King

Frances-Anne has published short stories and poetry. Her poems have appeared in Acumen, Agenda, Envoi and The Rialto and she was a finalist in the 2008 New Writers Poetry Competition and the 2010 Cinnamon Poetry Competition. She lives in Bath.

Hearts and Other Organs

I remember a museum of glass bottles,
shelf after shelf rising to the ceiling.
Were the skylights domed? The light
was granite-flecked, dimly illuminating
a Victorian freak-show of medical specimens –
speckled, puckered, gill-like tissue all in tall flasks
floating down the years in liquid chemicals;
an army of jetsam collected and collated.

I remember the foetuses, some wrapped in cauls –
the sailors’ lucky charm – others so transparent
I could see the heart behind the shadow
of the lungs, the armour of ribcage,
the hands and nails curled bleak and beautiful
as plainchant, rocking in their sea of loss.