stepping out
onto the sunset
catwalk, London

juts its bones in
couture: organza
sky distressed

over the West End’s
knowing armour – it’s
all about structure,

darling, the single
crane dangling its
ruby earring: blood

pendent amidst blue,
last drop on the map
wrapped and worn

as a dress; the full
moon is artless, a silver
given, a fluorescent

puffball scattering
glitter spores of desire
over the shards, ascendant

crystals healing only
sceptics: the hard city
softened by chiffons of

fog as it tries to rise,
a ten-inch heel spiking
the stars into the sky.

© Sophie Mayer, from Her Various Scalpels (Shearsman, 2009).
Sophie Mayer is the author of Her Various Scalpels and The Cinema of Sally Potter: A politics of love (Wallflower, 2009). She is a Commissioning Editor at Chroma and moderator of the English PEN Online Atlas. Her writing about film and her poetry have appeared in magazines ranging from Sight & Sound and Vertigo to Staple, Seam and Stand.