Alice Frecknall

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At 3am I read manuals for flat pack

assign a letter/number system
to my body parts, fantasise
about enlisting strangers to hold
me up. Just for a moment?
Swaddle myself in their arms
whilst I attempt to figure
out which bit has come loose, why
the ground refuses to level. I
scour the internet for home
hacks, top ten ways to eradicate
decay. Nowhere mentions 
this signature sweetness,
the air is sick with it and I
give thanks for the mechanical ease
of a hinge opening outwards,
neck stiffening as the whole
of spring passes through.
The trees have grown into
themselves, and I think, soon,
the birds will come.

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ALICE FRECKNALL is a poet, short fiction writer, and fine artist. Her debut collection, Somewhere Something is Burning (2021), is published by Out-Spoken Press. Her writing has been widely anthologised and was shortlisted for the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry 2019.