A vanishing act on the palliative ward
Hands reaching, he already disappears before her fingers touch inside cracked palm
her racked
Hands reaching, fingers palm
he already appears cracked
ready for her touch
a pear inside a palm
and her fingers crack
he disappears before her
he is a fin
reaching for her
he disappears her
he is her
ore inside
each eady palm
her palm
disappears
What the Poet Says
I have been playing a lot with erasure poetry lately, and I thought this iterative type of poetry was an interesting take on erasure. I enjoy seeing how far I can push the language from a simple sentence, and what meanings can emerge from the words and fragments, as well as from what is left out.
Ella B. Winters (she/they) is a social worker, researcher, and writer, living on the South-East coast of England with her partner and their sausage dog. Her poetry often explores themes of identity, memory and belonging. It has been published in The Aftershock Review, Frozen Sea, Full House Literary, Black Iris, Wildscape Literary, and elsewhere, and was nominated for the Forward and Pushcart prizes.
Instagram: @ella.b.winters Bluesky: @ella-b-winters.bsky.social