A Poem by Daniel Sluman

Snow

a jolt of white against the window      
as the snow piles against the glass

& like children
we feel that scattering of flakes outside

melting into the creases
            of our open hands

it must have started when we were asleep

like a note drawn from the silence
& trembling louder

with the mounting fall

filling the gutters & packing the furrows
of the road with noise

in the shower the clouds of steam
unfold from my shoulders

                                                   like wings

           sometimes you telling me
the outline of my hips makes you wet

as i dry myself on the edge of the bed

is all it takes
& i’m suddenly here in my body

my ego in your hands
a pipe splitting in frost  

as i fill my form
sudden   maddening as weather

Daniel Sluman is a 34-year-old disabled poet and disability rights activist. He co-edited the first major UK Disability poetry anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, and he has published two poetry collections with Nine Arches Press; his second, the terrible, was released in 2015. He has appeared widely in UK poetry journals and his third collection of poetry single window is to be published by Nine Arches Press in autumn 2021.