Hi Helen,
Ouch!! This hits hard.
I'm not sure about the word "then" - I sort of feel I want to read "And now
I wait..."
And you say there's no violence in it! Maybe not explicit, but...
I also like the first words: "Since then" and how they anchor everything you
list into the narrator's history. It's great to realise how powerful such
small words can be in poems, how they work, what they do!
Bob
>From: Helen Clare <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New Sub: Ball and Chain
>Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 07:49:24 -0000
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>sex rather than violence this time... but some of you may not like it!
>H
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>Ball and Chain
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>Since then I've tied a ligature round the scrotum
>of a man I nearly loved. Put another on a leash
>and dragged him round a certain kind of club.
>Felt the weight of Ben-wa beads falling through me
>as I walked. And then this sickening wait
>for you break that final link and sign away
>a marriage I bore like a prolapse of the womb.
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