there you were: star-crossed
                      & stark, nipping the neck
               of Calvinus, flicking Winstons from windowsill,
                              scribbled MA sonnets
                        & scrunched love letters smothered
                                                    under feet & frown,
                                          Twelve Carat Toothache
                                     cutting the silence,
            your rib cage crushing, lungs
                                   heaving in the June heatwave
               with undiagnosed pneumonia
                                  & pleural effusion,
                                 coughing blood
                            & wheezing cheater

Harry Lowery is a writer from Newcastle upon Tyne. He recently graduated from Lancaster University with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing (Distinction). He was honoured to receive the 2021/2022 Portfolio Prize as the highest-achieving student in the faculty. He had the privilege of working alongside world-renowned writers, such as Paul Muldoon, Paul Farley, and Terry Eagleton, whose guidance and input played a key role in shaping these poems.