At bell time
the fighters lunge
out of their corners
circling and parrying
bare-knuckle-
trained-up
for the
hard fight
what’s more like life
than this –
the rounds
the bruises
the blood
the crowd’s
universal language
you are here
seeing stars
from the canvas floor
or triumphing-up your arms
in brief costly victory

PENELOPE SHUTTLE lives in Cornwall, UK, and has published numerous collections, the most recent of which is Will You Walk A Little Faster? (Bloodaxe Books).  Her next publication is a collaboration with Alyson Hallett.  This is a book of poems inspired by The Lizard Peninsula in West Cornwall, titled Lzrd, to appear from Indigo Dreams Publications in the fall of 2018.