Brutal Poetry

HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for The Brutal Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some of our shortlisted contributors the chance to be published on our website.

Keep an eye on our social media for more great writing like this, in the run up to the release of The Brutal Issue…


Scratch

Robert Beveridge

 

You light a cigarette with a twenty
as the vet leads him away.
The battery no longer works as well.
You make a note to yourself:
go to the auto store tomorrow.
Even washing his feet
with lamb’s oil and saffron
did not increase its efficacy.
You think it perhaps necessary
to question the woman next,
see what the clamps will do
to her beautiful eyes.

 



ROBERT BEVERIDGE makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry just outside Cleveland, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in Survision, Loud Zoo, and Ghostlight, among others.