New Poetry: 3D Biology & Bedtime Stories

It is back to school and then off to bed with two new poems for you this week. The first is by Mary Gilonne, a translator living in France – her poetry has been published in numerous magazines, she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and she took a first prize in the Wedlock International Poetry Competition, and the second is by Connecticut-based writer Edward Ahern. Ed Ahern resumed writing after 40 odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He's had over 90 stories and poems published so far, and two books. He has his original wife, but advises that after 48 years they are both out of warranty. Oh, and best not look under your bed tonight!


​3D Biology for beginners
by Mary Gilonne

It starts with wafering, horizontal.
I strip a layer down skin-flat, leafed.
Can edges curl as if they’re folding arms,
surrendering? I open G files, scan,
nozzle a lisping snake of lasered light to fit. 
New words wire my mouth like vertebrae,
link a mathematical map of binding bone,
sintering, extrusion, this magical mastering
of polymers. Each thin slice of precious
bioprint I pressure, melt until its utmost point
of liquifaction. Somewhere atoms fuse across
these boundaries of particles, mould invisible
mechanics into a perfect piece of you. 


Bedtime Story
by Edward Ahern

Be careful when you wake
In the hours just after midnight
For you have ebbed and the night surges.
 
Be careful if you wander
Into different seeming rooms
For the other things that prowl.
 
Be careful of the noise in darkness,
In the creaks and cracks and rattles
For not all menace holds its tongue.
 
Be careful, oh be careful
In stepping from your bed
For what you fear has come.