Unbuttoning
Unbuttoning my skin and easing it off -
a long, bedraggled pair of socks, a set
of crumpled gloves - I find, as I shed
my shape, the goldfish swallowed at a party,
the song I whistled when things went wrong,
a holiday alone and the letters I wrote
to all those disastrous girls. It smelt
of old cricket bats and tea leaves,
it looked like the pages of second hand books
on carpentry, astronomy or how to create
the perfect cottage garden. Slipping back
into it carefully, avoiding uncomfortable creases
behind the knees or under the arms,
I can still see it flopping on the line
after washing - the ghost of a flag
or a freckled windsock - something
unfinished and provisional. As I climb
into bed beside you
smelling of hedgerows and meadows
like someone come back from the dead
there is nothing to be afraid of.
a long, bedraggled pair of socks, a set
of crumpled gloves - I find, as I shed
my shape, the goldfish swallowed at a party,
the song I whistled when things went wrong,
a holiday alone and the letters I wrote
to all those disastrous girls. It smelt
of old cricket bats and tea leaves,
it looked like the pages of second hand books
on carpentry, astronomy or how to create
the perfect cottage garden. Slipping back
into it carefully, avoiding uncomfortable creases
behind the knees or under the arms,
I can still see it flopping on the line
after washing - the ghost of a flag
or a freckled windsock - something
unfinished and provisional. As I climb
into bed beside you
smelling of hedgerows and meadows
like someone come back from the dead
there is nothing to be afraid of.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The