Michelle Penn

essay on mass hysteria

girls are falling falling
grasping the air in fists               
drawing it close pushing it back
billowing their bodies
stranded jellyfish fighting the dry
pulsing churning seeing nothing but
their private seas they judder
rise high on their toes and
fall they fall the girls fall
folding like skirt pleats collapsing
onto school shoes they are unfruited
leaves escaping the trees
see how it all adds up
girl and girl and girl 

and people are dancing
hips spinning infinities
onto music only they hear
they hurl their bodies against
invisible walls
shake off cloaks of needles
rebound inside blind constellations
arms and legs tunnelling into nothing
men dance past the blood
on their feet women dance beyond
bruises and sleep
the doctors watch and the
scholars and the priests 

and a whole town is laughing
giggles tickling like flies
meaty peals
that abrade the throat
punch holes in the earth
tears seep like seeds
bodies coil they gasp a late
harvest of breath and still
laughter takes them and
there is no rest they teeter
on their feet savage taken
laughing no idea why 

Michelle Penn’s debut pamphlet, Self-portrait as a diviner, failing (2018), won the Paper Swans Prize. Recent poetry has appeared in Perverse, The Rialto, Nimrod, B O D Y, 192 and Poetry Birmingham. Michelle plans innovative poetry/art/music events in London as part of Corrupted Poetry. She’s also a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. michellepennwriter.com