Papa Log

when a father is a control bar
made of wood

and the strings snap
the puppets fall

into an empty pit
the ambulance arrives and

men in neon yellow scoop them up

(the puppets)

to keep them from the mouths
of blood-wolves
who never cared for mahogany anyway

pump pump pump
breath breath breath

bones shatter in the dead wood man
and one by one

the strings that keep the puppets safe
unravel

glossy eyed dolls,
permanent smiles on their cracked faces

as they unlearn parental love
forever this time

papa’s unwell, he can’t photosynthesise
and the men who look like
daffodils breathe useless life

into a log

Anna Nightingale is from Coventry, UK, and is in her final year of studying English at the University of Cambridge. Her work has appeared in Bindweed Magazine.