Bunny Says

I’m hovered by the gate post again, waiting for Bunny
with my bag full of sour bread, just like Bunny
wanted, and jimjangled, can’t see Bunny.
Have I come dog-keen too early
Have I worn the right red boots
Have I stopped you raging Bunny
and Bunny says Bunny says Bunny says

Now we’re chasing my sister and Bunny
is joyful, but trickster and thug he is, is Bunny
he loves the way the brambles bite, does Bunny
so does she love the scramble too
so does she cry for being alive
so does she gasp for young night, Bunny
and Bunny says Bunny says Bunny says

In the garage, we unjunk some purple paint but Bunny
is not in think of plans or undead dusk. No, Bunny
charcoals out his plans for an everyoung Bunny
Will he do this thing and name it servant
Will it lollop methodically, coughing out washers
Will you will it to kill me, Rust Commander Bunny?
and Bunny says Bunny says Bunny says

by Kirsten Irving

News from the Centre! We are excited to say that this week’s poet, Kirsten Irving, will be reading alongside Caroline Smith this Thursday from 7-9pm at our new venue, the Society Café in central Oxford. (We featured ‘Teenager’, a poem from Caroline’s book The Immigration Handbook – shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award – back in January.) All are welcome to the reading, and you can buy tickets (£4) via the Brookes Shop and also on the door. We hope to see you there! Next Thursday, the Society Café hosts another reading – this time with Siobhán Campbell and Kate Clanchy, and you can find tickets for that event here.

We would also be delighted to see you at our International Poetry Competition awards evening on Friday 24 November at Oxford Brookes. The event, which runs from 6.30-8pm in the John Henry Brookes Building, will feature readings from the winners and shortlisted poets in this year’s competition, and also a reading from our judge, Helen Mort. And cake. To book a place, please e-mail poetrycomp@brookes.ac.uk

‘Bunny Says’ is an unpublished poem and is copyright © Kirsten Irving, 2017. It is reproduced with the permission of the author.

Kirsten Irving is a poet, editor, copywriter, and voice actor. Her poems have appeared widely in various online and print magazines. She has published three pamphlets – No, Robot, No! with Jon Stone, What To Do, Riotous with Jon Stone and a debut full-length collection Never NeverNever Come Back (Salt Publishing, 2012). The poem ‘Bunny Says’ is from her forthcoming collection, tentatively titled Popgun. Kirsten is also one of the founding editors of experimental poetry press Sidekick Books. You can read more about Kirsten’s work on her website, follow her on Twitter, or come and hear her read this Thursday!

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.