Wristwatch

Written from personal experience without a hint of sentimentality, Wristwatch charts a course through cancer treatment and recovery, becoming a widow at 44, and taking on the social care system on behalf of elderly relatives. United by themes of transition and transformation, the beautifully realised sequences in Wristwatch are moving, spare and convincing:

Listen as the city wheezes,
exhaling through its teeth:
the pause where it stops breathing,
when all I hear is heart,
thudding, as I wait.