Will Keohane is an Irish-Canadian poet based in Limerick, and a lover of all things spoken word. This year he won the British Psychological Society’s 2017 poetry competition, and his poem, Multitudes, will be published in the August 2017 issue of The Psychologist.

Will was also featured in the Poetry Day Ireland 2017 Mix-Tape, curated by Lagan Online and Poetry NI. His favourite poets include Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop, and he firmly believes that a good cup of tea can solve almost anything.

The careful destruction of a heartbeat

Displace
this space
I’ll hold
my breath

your foot
on my
sternum
will press

open
crack op/
en crack
op/en
My chest

Take this
softness
hold it
I have
handed

all of
myself
this mess
to you

and you
could do
anything to

this clay
that makes
me who
I am

I have
handed
you all
control
of me

remnants
that you
could wreck
with ease

so if
you do

please

be soft

destroy
me

carefully