NCLA New Writing: 'Cecilia' by Antonia Cundy

NCLA New Writing:

‘Cecilia’ by Antonia Cundy

Little porcelain doll; raven strands in curled crowns

Tied with thick black rope. White gossamer waves flow

Off your hollow eggshell body, down to black-tipped feet,

Black-knotted bows – spiders cautiously showing a leg.

Cupid shaped his weapon from your lips, but

Venus’ eyes gaze through shadow. A wooden pall

Crushed the light. Now fallen from your marble mantle

You lie here. In this dark, satin gloves are wool, lace trim

The same midnight-nothing as the coarse string

Of the rag doll’s plait. You may as well be nude.

 

 

 

Antonia Cundy is a first-year English literature student at Newcastle University who has been privately writing for years, and now wishes to venture into publication, after studying Plath at school triggered her particular interest for poetry.