Poetry
Penthouse or The Joke of All Time
They told me to be quiet
And they told me to be candy
To smile and be sugared
And they told me I was beautiful
They told
That’s how they taught
Hushed and buttoned up
Just as I buttoned down
Lips, belts
Taught me to be nice
So nice
To smile a tearless numb
Taught me to do anything
So I’d do any thing
Be any thing
Be an alien
Because aliens don’t have bodies
A new sensation
From outta space
Split open
Cold and clean
Sweet-juiced
Slice by slice
Delicious, delicious
Bones, blood and hair
Ripe and picked, picked
Picked at
fed off
And like it better than anything in the world
Then dropped where they’d found me.
Kill me.
Kill me, then go to hell
With no more illusions
And now that all my teachers are dead,
There’s nothing more to do but dance.
k.d.zwierz
k.d.zwierz currently lives in Lebanon, with his partner and their cat, Malishan, working with victims of geopolitical violence to create opportunities for selfexpression and release through the arts. His poem ‘Tableau’ was a Bournemouth Writing Festival, Writing on the Wall winner in 2025. His chapbook, The Dead Speak, was published by Falstead Art, London.