Cockroach Seer

In the carpet heat

You’d find the pit,

observe a creature shadowed by it:

a cockroach, overgrown,

gone lax, beat.

Watch it now

unfastening itself, or trying to,

trochanter manipulating the tarsus

scraping along the exoskeleton for purchase

until the fresh white of the flesh eases through

but this is not enough,

its hooks work visceral as the sun

eviscerates the scleral flesh

the rays pierce the eyes’ facets

dig deep and bring forth

refracted, reflected beyond Euclid

the wet white ropes

deformed searing the brain

from a warped mirror

the graven image.

It feels itself unravelled,

two tubes pooling coagulate on the salted base

the lines conflict with each other

one drips in detritus, composed,

the other is whip-like

half-coiled about your shoe.

Those hewn bulbs gaze empty at the gashed future

then see the audience,

its vanity thought private

surprised, scrutinised.

I'm a 21-year old student from Oldham. I use poetry to make feelings tangible. I like translation.