Ink on Silk

 

Ink on Silk

I just want to say it!
but not just on paper
no draft in dull pencil
not well composed
no crossing of T’s
and dotting of I’s
no chicken feet scratch
but into the paper –
Hack! Hack! Hack, hack!

Onto the page and into the paper
with fierce metal fangs
H’s and T’s, K’s, M’s and P’s
each iron tooth a dedicated shape
a hammering clamp, a set impression
an instrument of precision,
digging its mark, a letter, a number
into your flesh, your pretty virgin paper
branding, without regret
without recall

Like ink on silk,
I want you to absorb me!
staining and travelling
branching out in a venography
no full-stop, no halt on a page
no shiny rainbow island of oil on water
I want to be drank by your blotting paper
entering your tissue
and soaking each cell
my pigment ingrained
my soul in a tattoo
ink on silk
not ink in a well.

© Frances Livings 2011

 

Buy your copy here:

spilled black ink draining away in a wash basin

© photographer unknown

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