Barbie

Witch Craft Magazine

Reminder! Brute Force for paid subscribers, every Monday

Every Monday I host a writing sprint to get you out of your head and onto the page for 15 minutes a week on Zoom at 5:15pm UK / 12:15pm EST. I will post the Zoom link in the Substack Chat the day of starting 10 June, so don’t miss out!

Thanks for reading — on to this week’s poem.

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by Maria Sledmere

ghostwrites from inside a vinyl compound
the loneliness of being anyone
at some point made to inspire
decapitated ideals in children
who want to grow their own
glossy personas
from solvent abuse
and generalised influence disorder
begging for toys at the supermarket
let me be held by mood enhancers
a diminutive of the landlady
ethylene-vinyl acetate
false eyelash alacrity
recite yr wishes thrice
so much for gore and spoilers
the bastion of angelkinder
oestrogen coleslaw
playing the sweet hits like
pink gingham gosling
circling the pond
in perfect suburbia
who is using whom
just another volatile girl body
on the barbecue
blowout party
£350 Dreamhouse from Argos
now she’s quasi-
demolished fashionista
with a craze for barbiturates
double dating gasoline jimmy
an earlier model was more suggestive
catalogued to embody lux prowess
the genetical persistence of
human amnesia
inhabits our dollsleep
with beauty’s precious dope
this is infinitely flexible
like the shape of “yes”
not sure if you
first touched me
how do I feel safer

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about the author

Maria Sledmere is an artist, writer and languishing editrix based in Glasgow. Recent publications include Cinders (Krupskaya, 2024), An Aura of Plasma Around the Sun (Hem Press, 2023) and Visions & Feed (HVTN Press, 2022). She co-runs SPAM Press and lectures at the University of Strathclyde.

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