Tarantula by Antonia Lucia Dawes (England)

​Bang that drum
boom and rattle
along the ripcord
from scalp to tips of toes.
Connect past to present and speak on
our colonially constituted conjuncture.
This association is pursuing an agenda (they say)
the university promotes free speech and
it’s not all about race (it is).

​Bang that drum
boom, boom, thud.
Bare feet that shuffle on compacted earth
exposing teeth and neck sinews
with eyes that seek to convey.
Strike negotiations have reached an impasse (they say)
although our intention would be to restore pay and pensions
if market conditions allow.
Boom and crash!
Bang that drum!
This is what resilience is:
insistence on a truth
that finally bears us home.
It’s disappointing (they say)
that after everything we have done
the students still aren’t happy.
(Why would they be?)
Bang that drum!
Bang that drum!
Boom and hiss
rippling along the lines
of tired faces, a screen
of frozen and pixelated boxes
the punctuated coughing.
Bang that drum!
Keep at it!
Palm of hand against taut
frenzied stamping.
Like a spider bit you.
Like it’s your one chance at freedom.
Until sweat flicks out from your
whipping hair and poised elbows.
Until the walls have come down.
Until there is no institution left
to save –
only rubble, and vines lacing together
thick with grapes
and the steady echo
of the drumbeat in our hearts.





Antonia Lucia Dawes is a poet, writer and academic based in London. She is interested in excavation, water, identity, love, horror, and struggle. She writes to connect the past to the present, and to our collective hopes for the future.