Traitor #poetry #dVerse

On the field
in front of Traitor’s Gate
they hacked my head off.

They probably stuck it on a pole
so the horror of it all
would live on in people’s memory.

I couldn’t care less for any of that
anymore: my head’s off, somewhere down there
while I’m up here, observing… 

Shall we say detachedly?
Or would that be distasteful?
You can’t taste anything with your head off except magic.

© Experimentsinfiction 2020, All Rights Reserved

Sarah is hosting at dVerse tonight, and she has given us a set of 3-word prompts, each one corresponding to a location in London on the website what3words.

I chose ‘field.memory.magic’ as these three words spoke to me most strongly of my experience of London. I didn’t expect them to take me to such a dark place as Traitor’s Gate. Appropriate for Halloween, at least!

Note on accuracy: there’s no field in front of traitor’s gate, unless you’re looking at the gate from the inside the tower complex, having already passed through it.

39 thoughts on “Traitor #poetry #dVerse

Add yours

  1. Great words – and what a place they took you to! I love the devil-may-care attitude of this poem, Ingrid:
    ‘I couldn’t care less for any of that
    anymore: my head’s off, somewhere down there’
    and the final line is brilliant!
    It made me think of the BBC1 comedy ‘Ghosts’ by the people who made ‘Horrible Histories’ – there’s a head without a body – very funny.

  2. Ingrid, I hate to say I’m delighted by such a dark poem, but the idea of the traitor’s soul now dwelling in a wizened magical crow in the afterworld does just that.

  3. I too love the attitude in this poem, Ingrid and was blown away by “Shall we say detachedly? Or would that be distasteful?”

  4. kaykuala

    Very powerful and not totally unexpected with trying times these days Ingrid Out of the usual and a dark poem but bravely cut. Great thinking Ma’am!

    Hank

  5. We chose the same words! I like your take from the perspective of the beheaded (and the raven). Why would they care? I really like that last line, and the except magic added on.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: