A pound, and I’m the man
with seven scars, true heir
to the school of Hokuto
Shinken, wandering the non-
descript badlands that always
mean world’s end, lone hero,
the criminally insane mutated
to pale hulks with bulbous heads,
made flesh-bombs, with the flick
of a wrist, so quick, it seems
I only stand still; win by an act
of will. This is a Hokuto master’s
art: observe the foe’s stopped heart,
intact, but for the dark spot where
the strike found its mark. I practiced
first with melons. When they split
at the slightest touch, I called myself
a novice. When we cut them open
to see the fruit reduced to slush,
I became a student. When my finger-
tips moved as if full metal jackets,
I set off on the quest that is my life’s
work. Chain-wielding bikers cannot
faze me. To face me is to invite death.
Kayo Chingonyi is 23 and read English Literature at The University of Sheffield. His poems have appeared in City Lighthouse (tall-lighthouse), The Shuffle Anthology, and Verbalized (British Council, 2010). He appears on Asking a Shadow to Dance, a DVD anthology produced by Oxfam in 2009.