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Writer's pictureThe Red Wheelbarrow Poetry

The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize 2021 Shortlist

pandora’s box


Sue Woodward


the box is barely noticeable

in the detritus of a stalled canal

a picker, seeking brass

pries at the hinges

they give way under

an inner pressure

the lid shifts to reveal

a slit of dark through which

a mass of scuttling

creatures clamber

frontrunners jostling

elbowing shoving flying

into the grey predawn

their wings uncreasing

stingers unsheathed

they cover the globe at speed

piercing the masks of pickers

politicians dancers philosophers

men at the side of the road

women who set off daily

children alone at home



SUE WOODWARD has been a writer and lover of language since studying English and Psychology at Wits University. After many years of teaching and editing, she now has the time to concentrate on her poetry. This year her love of writing and concern about ongoing gender-based violence and sexual exploitation has culminated in the publication of between the apple and the bite by Modjaji. The collection explores the predicament of women through the millennia, from Greek mythology and the Bible through history and into contemporary times. Sue lives in Muizenberg with her husband Rob and Ruby her dog.



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