The angel of torture prefers John Barrymore
to John Coltrane. Emily Post
to Emily Dickinson. Never a speck of balm
or blood upon the sleeve of the angel
of torture. Sometimes a smudge of ink
from a lawyerly text is only a smudge
of learnèd ink, states the angel of torture.
Who knows how to swallow a razor blade
while displaying a dull smile. Prefers initialed
memo to messy memoir, live video feed
from a remote location to photo array. Self-
portraiture could calm but never heal the bedazzled
brain of Vincent van Gogh. The antidote
to torture, Madam Curie once noted, is the daily
consumption of a small amount of pain. Gradually
increasing the dose each day, until you’re no longer
aware of the torturous comfort.
John Bradley
Picture Rupert Loydell
.