National Poetry Month 2016: Nikki Sheppy,

Slipknot

Here I am, the twill

membrane of an empty

suit, slipping your grip.

Or the wolf awake

at your hands, shredding

their bark with tines.

And if the guise

should fail to hold

know this: I’ll bolt again.

A wave, an awl, a poltergeist

hatcheting your calm,

the scald of pepper

torching your face,

then unctuous chum hurled

to the spasm of a shark.

Nikki Sheppy is a poet, editor and arts journalist. She has a doctorate in English literature from the University of Calgary. Her book reviews have appeared in Uppercase Magazine, Alberta Views, and Lemon Hound, and her poetry in Event, Matrix, Jacket2, Touch the Donkey & Dusie, and is forthcoming in The Calgary Renaissance anthology (Chaudiere Books, 2016) and on newpoetry.ca. She is Managing Editor of filling Station, and a Director of the Board of Alberta Magazine Publishers Association. Her poetry manuscript, Grrrrlhood: a ludic suite, was published by Kalamalka Press in 2014.