I originally wrote this poem as a potential submission for the  Poetry@British Art Show 8 event in Southampton next month. However, I missed the deadline (oops) – so I’m going to publish it on here anyway!

As part of the exercise, writers were asked to write poetry based around the theme of Materiality, which is the focus of BAS8.

Here’s my little interpretation – I hope you enjoy!

Material Girls

Madonna once sung
of material girls –
all fishnets and scarves
and bright plastic pearls.

Well I am one too;
of a different kind.
Open me up
and who knows what you’ll find.

Unplayable organs
and legs made of jelly;
Eyes that are cuboid
from watching the telly.

A nose that’s a button
which doesn’t do up;
a bone that performs
the worst kind of stand-up.

Ears that appear to be
some kind of veg,
And feet with the stench
of a cheddary wedge.

A body that’s made up
mostly of water
(Not sure what Dad makes
of his liquified daughter.)

A heart carved of granite
the toughest of stone,
and the crystalline glint
of a fragile jawbone.

Digits of dairy,
and hair made of straw,
and sharp tongue that suits
My own mother-in-law.

It seems that the body,
is not bone and skin
but a mishmash of objects
with a soul just thrown in.

Material Girls
upon close inspection
are not what you’d think,
and defy expectation.

Biology’s wrong
You cannot deny;
There’s more to the body
than first meets the eye.