Steph Gorman

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Ambiguous Interiors I

After Figure Study I, Francis Bacon

You are a fallen coat stand
attempting sentience,
leaning heavily and politely
like emphatic applause,
blooms continuing into your face
like compliments.

From your gesture of hat
and the idea of your arm,
I assume your humanity.
Your gown goes on in its architecture,
onto a surface I call the floor,
which, at its far seam,
announces something which is
neither the sea nor the sky nor the shore.

I can see through you,
but I choose to assume your humanity.

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STEPH GORMAN is from South London and studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her poems have appeared in Stryx and Away With Words.