Bianca Bowers is a South-Africa born, Australian-based, poet who has also lived in New Zealand and Britain. Her poetry has appeared in Tongue in Your Ear, Volume 4 (Four/Two Publishing) and the Art Toppling Tobacco Project (2013). She is the author of Death and Life, and you can find her at www.biancabowers.com

Bianca Bowers

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She leaves her soul in the stairwell

She leaves her soul in the stairwell
at dusk

Folds her petticoat heart
before the snow-capped raven
serenades the moon

Padlocks her tongue
while the storm gathers emotion

Slips into a bath of disinfectant
to scrub the subterranean scars

When her skin catches its breath

She secures her anxiety
to a moth's wings

and watches it flee the night.