Commended: Iris Campbell, August

Iris Campbell

Commended, 2026 Tower Poetry Competition, 'A Riddle'

August

August carved
Itself deep into my skin; a cavity
Where girlhood lay. The bee sting
Is hot, a furnace, a raised lump
Of anticipation. We wait for climax.
The garden is our haunt; we are beasts,
Rabid, salivating, unbound. Barefoot
And unhurried, drunk on sweat
And honey. Let us find God in the grasses
Unnervingly omnipresent in leaking
Smiles, flashes of teeth, apple’s bone.
Cradle riddles of heat that gently probe
The skin. You tease an answer
From the suckled gaze of yesterday;
Lurid grin of daylight-flame.
The birthday of the world sits
Like a cherry pit on your tongue,
Knowledge drips down my chin
Wet and glistening, tainted red.
Stretch myself open: a snake’s jaw
Unhinged to gouge itself on delicate
Purity; wrap my teeth around the sun.
The promise of an end hangs itself
Like a tear in clouds. My reflection
Pauses its slow ageing: soil beckons
The bones. The lines of your eyes
Flow like rivers in a drought – we pray
For the rain. Mortuary of days: time
Rises, a towering father. Who are we?
August gone.