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The Friday Poem on 29/10/21

All parents know how hard it is to explain to a child why the world is how it is, and Jonathan Totman describes this experience perfectly in his poem ‘Frozen’ — a loose, unrhymed sonnet — which references the popular Disney film. His poem is tender, intimate, and so human; we feel keenly the father’s desire to protect the innocence of the child. This is a powerful poem, made more so by its formal restraint. Definitely one for our front page.

Frozen

She wants to know what makes the villain
lift his sword. I tell her sometimes people do
bad things when they’re sad or angry or scared
and we wonder about the brothers who pretended
he was invisible, literally, for two whole years; 
but what made them be so mean – no, 
what made the first person mean? she asks,
seeing a long trail of hurt stretching back 
like some terrible game of tag. Good question,
I say, good question, as if the genesis of cruelty was
a tricksy puzzle I might gently guide her through,
tracing it back to the moment a heart hardened,
the speed and slip of it, beating in the cold,
a drop of blood falling warm on the snow.

Jonathan Totman’s debut collection, Night Shift, was published by Pindrop Press in December 2020. His pamphlet, Explosives Licence, was joint winner of Templar Poetry’s 2018 iOTA Shot award. Find Jonathan Totman on Twitter here.

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