Isobel Williams

Who am I?

The hole in your most precious cloth
Eaten by a larval moth

The adequate reply that came
Into your head when they’d gone home

The fear that loiters in the park
And counts the ducklings after dark

The echo of an unmade cry
Drowned in biochemistry

I am a dream that you forgot
I am your baby who is not

The Other

I feed upon your words like bread
Their gold outbids my lines of lead
I read your works to rhyme with need
And blot mine with a splintered reed
I spread for you and beg your seed
And oh your head your head your head

Isobel Williams has written for publications ranging from The Amorist to International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. She wrote and illustrated The Supreme Court: a Guide for Bears (2017), Catullus: Shibari Carmina (Carcanet, 2021), Switch: The Complete Catullus (Carcanet, 2023) and a chapter in Design in Legal Education (Routledge, 2022). She is contributing to Contemporary Women's Voices and the Classical Past (Bloomsbury).