Bio: Nina Parmenter’s début collection Split, Twist, Apocalypse is published by Indigo Dreams. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Honest Ulsterman, Atrium Poetry, Snakeskin, Allegro Poetry, Green Ink, and Ink Sweat and Tears. In 2021, she was winner of the Hedgehog Poetry single poem contest and was nominated for the Forward Prize. She lives in Wiltshire but can be found online at www.ninaparmenter.com, on Twitter @ninaparmenter and on Instagram @nina.parmenter
Circumference
We were tubes, we were curled shrimps, dots in a salty sea-womb. So round. We unfurled one leggy morning, struggling through the vernix, opened eyes to dilating horizons, and smiled. We bubbled our hungry brains, puffed up bellies, boggled at our fat circumference, took the world in our teeth. In the evening, we drew one straight line, then another. By midnight, we were zeros on a grid. So round. Scream Do you feel the bristle of closeness, hairs up like a brush? Do you feel the tired shiver of company? Does your brain spike and jabber at the stab of a voice? Does the air crush too much to be breathed? Open your mouth like mine - right up to the hinge. Let space ring your teeth. Now scream. First Published by Dust, June 2022 Talisman my mind is my rabbit’s foot it runs and it runs my thoughts are prayers that ricochet and always come back my mind is a pendant heavy round my neck, it is all six points of a star it burns my mind is the crystal you bought in a seaside shop when the salt-breeze blew in hope I clasp it before I sleep my mind is your lucky charm your cursed thoughts your incantations it has nothing to hold it holds on Poems from Nina Parmenter
Fevers of the Mind 