Sybil Ruth
Happy After
It was dark night.
Her friends had gone.
She rubbed herself, muttering
I want someone.
Wishes are dangerous.
He appears at her door
from blue nowhere.
A gift horse.
Her dreamboat.
A proper parcel
she has to unpack.
Her hands shake and fumble,
pulling off sticky tape,
smoothing wrapping paper.
He’s the exact shape of her order.
Too late to think
of sending him back.
His mouth is a bath
she can swim in.
He plays a tune
to make her tongue dance.
The bed gets breathless
as he tilts at her
and she comes true at last.
Daylight. Noises.
She expects he’ll be off
in a puff of sour breath,
gulped coffee, car keys.
Taking away the tide of his chest
and his chin’s blue rasp,
end of story.
But then he walks in.
A big grin on his face.
Having conjured the teapot,
a tray with two mugs,
toast and marmalade.
What next?
Page(s) 30-31
magazine list
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- Pen Pusher Magazine
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- Poetry London (1951)
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- Staple
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- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
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