Andrew Dilger
Beauty Spot
Even the name, Wittenham Clumps:
a site of witchery. We rolled up
in a hired car – perfect manners, picnic in tow –
the sea of grass parting to make a path.
I was in your words a mere boy,
a thug perhaps, but biddable.
Your talk was supernatural:
ley lines and religion
or gender, which meant womankind.
Sometimes I listened, sometimes
cut a slice of taleggio, and tried to gauge
your cup size through your vest.
The view was late pastoral:
power station, five squat towers.
B-roads laid down between hedgerows.
We stayed until the sun was lost,
until my forearm hairs prickled
with cold you didn’t seem to feel.
I think I was impressed
by you, your commitment to mystery.
Men use love to get sex; women, who knows.
Back at yours, in a red room
my fingers mistook your right breast.
What did I think I was doing?
Good question. I researched the answer
driving back home through the dark
alone – too stunned to use the headlights,
too incensed by your real tears.
a site of witchery. We rolled up
in a hired car – perfect manners, picnic in tow –
the sea of grass parting to make a path.
I was in your words a mere boy,
a thug perhaps, but biddable.
Your talk was supernatural:
ley lines and religion
or gender, which meant womankind.
Sometimes I listened, sometimes
cut a slice of taleggio, and tried to gauge
your cup size through your vest.
The view was late pastoral:
power station, five squat towers.
B-roads laid down between hedgerows.
We stayed until the sun was lost,
until my forearm hairs prickled
with cold you didn’t seem to feel.
I think I was impressed
by you, your commitment to mystery.
Men use love to get sex; women, who knows.
Back at yours, in a red room
my fingers mistook your right breast.
What did I think I was doing?
Good question. I researched the answer
driving back home through the dark
alone – too stunned to use the headlights,
too incensed by your real tears.
Andrew Dilger’s poems have appeared in various magazines including The Devil, Samizdat, Smiths Knoll, Staple, and Verse. He lives in Oxford.
Page(s) 72
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