elizabeth fevyer

The Woman in White

 

Is supine;

Hangs on the word of the man at the foot of her bed;

Tells him when she ate last, drank last, bled last;

Wears a barcode around her leg, another around her wrist;

Gowns herself in cotton, laced with slipknots from her neck;

Lies down when she is asked;

Seals her lips and moves her legs apart;

Forces a smile from behind the plastic mask;

Breathes a sigh of invisible gas;

Waits quietly for the sharp scratch

and the electric heat;

the blinding light;

the fast heart;

Becomes sublime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Fevyer is a poet based in Wales, UK. Her poetry can be found, or is upcoming, in publications including The Alchemy Spoon, The Broken Spine, The Storms Journal, Madrid Review, After..., and Black Bough. In 2025 she won the poetry prize for the Walk Listen Create Write About Walking competition, on the theme of 'Walking in the Dark,' and she is a writer-in-residence at Walk Listen Create for 2025/26. She is currently studying for the Diploma in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and is working on the manuscript of her first Pamphlet.