Notes on what to expect if you’re stabbed by Colin Bancroft

As the knife enters your body

Your muscles will contract

And you’ll release air like a burst balloon.

Then you will inhale sharply,

Your body stiffening like clay left in the sun.

Please remember this:

You will not bleed out like in the movies,

Shirts are not dyed in an instant.

Your life will edge off slowly,

Like a prisoner sensitising to light.

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Colin Bancroft is nearing the end of a PhD on the poetry of Robert Frost. His pamphlet ‘Impermanence’ was published with Maytree Press in 2020 and ‘Kayfabe’ with Legitimate Snack|Broken Sleep in June 2021. He is editor at Nine Pens Press and runs the Poets’ Directory. Twitter: @colin_bancroft