I am not a sailing boat I am not
free my sails are. Heavy metal

reflecting a distorted image of the third
or fourth coffee. Of the day I sail

on. Weighty water & this is an extension
of me instead. Of a flag I fly

three strands of cobweb. Silks that sway
in a draught. That moves nothing else

but my skin. Is dusty & tarnished but polish
that off and my flesh

shines my sails. Are never going
to be not full.

Katherine Collins is a poet from Bristol. She works at the University of Oxford, where she holds a Leverhulme Fellowship, and her writing has appeared in The Rialto, Shearsman, Finished Creatures, Bath Magg, Ink Sweat & Tears, and Anthropocene Poetry.