Naked Oyster

Poppy Cockburn

Naked Oyster, the debut collection by Poppy Cockburn – author of pamphlets such as Liquid Crystal Lovesick Demon and feed notes – gathers 100-odd of her pithiest, prettiest and most coruscating poems. A specialist of the aphorism, the two-to-four liner in her hands is turned like a joke, a curse, a mirror, a glowstick, a dart; precision and point hasn’t achieved this density-per-inch since the Roman eprigrammists of the 2nd Century. Sly, sensual, comely, cruel, in the space of a few seconds each poem manages to be intro, outro, seduction and farewell in one.