Asphyxia
I imagine you were born
a breathless fish.
And they saved you.
They gave you a routine hint
of what you were meant
to know, even then, at the end,
at the beginning, on that particular
Monday, under the sign of Taurus,
when the clock struck a decisive
quarter past almost four.
Hello by Lionel
was in the top 5 hits.
They suctioned your mouth,
cleared your windpipe,
wrapped you warm.
I don’t know
if anyone asked you anything.
They saved you.
That’s all.
RADKA THEA OTÍPKOVÁ writes poetry in English, her second language. Her work has appeared in B O D Y, The North, Tears in the Fence and Moria. In 2017 her chapbook was shortlisted in the Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition and her poem “Coup de Grâce” was shortlisted in the 2017 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, judged by Helen Mort. In 2019 she won the Waltham Forest Poetry Competition. She cooperated on the translation of Stephan Delbos’ Two Poems, published by Literární salon in 2021. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.