Rebecca Goss
Mrs. Quigley and I
We bumped into one another
in a department store,
were screwing in her car an hour later.
Continued to do so for weeks, months,
every delicious opportunity we could get.
But yesterday was strange.
She came to me, the morning’s rain still caught
in the waxy creases of her coat,
little glass bubbles I wanted to reach out and collect.
She’d found Mr. Quigley in the hall,
manic, seething, rattling a dice in its shaker.
He let it roll across the floor, it almost touched her shoes.
“1, 2 or 3, you stay, 4, 5 or 6, you go. Shout out the number!”
He rolled a dice for me, can you believe that?
I loved Mrs. Quigley’s body,
her breasts, lips, legs. And I liked it married.
Liked covering her with my fingerprints,
so he could wipe them away with his own.
Did you hear that? He rolled a dice for me!
She dropped her shaking head,
the hair dark and damp at her neck.
I touched it lightly, lowered my voice to a lover’s whisper,
tell me the number, I said.
Rebecca Goss’s pamphlet collection Keeping Houston Time was published by Slow Dancer Press in 1997. Her poems have appeared in various magazines including Ambit, Agenda and the Bridport anthology.
Page(s) 41
magazine list
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