by Fliss
I stand before you, holding out my hands,
imploring those now carrying a blade
through city streets and other bloodied lands,
to give it up, let lasting peace be made.
My sculptor used a hundred thousand knives
upon a frame, constructed out of steel,
to form my shape. I represent the lives
of crime, the deaths, perpetual ordeal.
For every unused weapon handed in,
another had been brandished in a kill,
its metal still revealing all its sin
with spots of scarlet blood, the victim’s spill.
I hold so many messages inside,
along the flanks of flicks, machetes, swords –
the love for family or friends who died,
amidst repentance from the prison wards.
Be present with me, take some time to think
of all the fear and suffering I bear
beneath blue skies, or grey, or murky ink;
I never sleep. My eyes ask, Why? I stare.
- - -
Published in Snakeskin, April 2023.
The Knife Angel is a sculpture currently touring the UK, aiming to raise awareness of knife crime.