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Sibyl Ruth’s poetry has been much published in magazines and anthologies. She lives in Birmingham and is former Poet Laureate of the city. She’s also interested in literary translation, and has translated a collection of German verse written in a concentration camp during 1944-5.
This man is a fine house.
An estate.
You’re a lucky girl.
Free to roam almost everywhere.
Exploring the hall of his chest
the great staircase of the spine
and the plantation of his hair.
Now your fingers trace
the curved wall of his skull.
So powerful. Imagine living here.
When you tried to ask about the others
he laughed. Life’s short.
Why go on about the past?
Already you are plotting
to open the locked cabinet of his heart.
It is dangerous to attempt this.
Don’t start.
Poem published: anthology Bluebeard’s Wives (Heaventree Press, 2007)
Publications: Nothing Personal (Iron Press, 1995). I Could Become That Woman (Five Leaves, 2003)
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