Mythologies
He comes onto her spread-eagled
(sic; the metaphor is inaccurate);
chest out, whole-body heaves.
He smells of lanolin in his armpits
and stagnant pond-muck, half-digested
grubs, decomposing vegetable-matter.
Short-arsed, splay-foot ramming
himself into her (oh to be a prize tup!);
for a dangerous moment he sees how
he could be like a stallion, mounting
her with the power of Pegasus (a cross
- dressing dream that has some appeal).
His voice is snake-hiss high and fast
staccato squawks, like gas escaping
from some ruptured bladder (next time
he’ll bellow like a rutting stag, make
it like a wild-boar; a gorging heave
and grunt... but that’s next time.) Now
her eyes, half-closed, half-focused
on his yellow slits, half on some dream
-lover; she moans ‘more... more’ and
he doesn’t know what more he can be;
he knows Leda’s faking it, but,
as a swan, Zeus knows he’s cheating too.
(sic; the metaphor is inaccurate);
chest out, whole-body heaves.
He smells of lanolin in his armpits
and stagnant pond-muck, half-digested
grubs, decomposing vegetable-matter.
Short-arsed, splay-foot ramming
himself into her (oh to be a prize tup!);
for a dangerous moment he sees how
he could be like a stallion, mounting
her with the power of Pegasus (a cross
- dressing dream that has some appeal).
His voice is snake-hiss high and fast
staccato squawks, like gas escaping
from some ruptured bladder (next time
he’ll bellow like a rutting stag, make
it like a wild-boar; a gorging heave
and grunt... but that’s next time.) Now
her eyes, half-closed, half-focused
on his yellow slits, half on some dream
-lover; she moans ‘more... more’ and
he doesn’t know what more he can be;
he knows Leda’s faking it, but,
as a swan, Zeus knows he’s cheating too.
Page(s) 31
magazine list
- Features
- zines
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- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
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- 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