She is Not Your Wife
(After Balthus)
Time evaporates. There is always more to the world
than less. She contemplates the cold sperm
on the kink in her hair, and living on the sunnyside,
away from the noxious torture of road drill
and the ammonia leaking from the hairdresser’s door.
Kegs hit the pavement-pillow like metal on flesh,
the stock deliveries piling up, piling up.
Moving closer, she sees a window cleaner, his ladder
like a film negative, plant himself on the bellicose
street and proceed to shave the glass.
She mops up between her legs and catches the butcher
swing a red rail of carcasses into his unclouded shop.
He wears an illfitting beard and comes out to gawp.
Taken unawares, she is beautiful again like a cat,
stepping back into the plaintive mirror
which is tired watching her unpeel cheap make-up.
Page(s) 19
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