Andrew Bailey
(As if it were a film,
she performs this immobility
precisely.
The clouds seem fast in comparison,
suggesting a hidden
trauma to solve. Imagine
it is a film, you the camera,
director and audience,
prolonging the performance
with every detail you pick out.)
You have twisted your plait right -
left-handed, then - and if I could see
through the singlet you wear
I would bet you have that hand on top.
You should be smoking, perhaps,
as you lean against this wall
(oddly, the furthest from yours)
keeping your face a secret;
but the chevrons of creases
on the left leg of your shorts
reveal that this thigh sits
over the other when you do,
and is supporting your slender weight now.
My pet, you are almost too attentive -
this is a film, and cannot develop
until you turn your head from these clouds
and let someone real intrude.
(You have decided she will be beautiful when she turns.
You feel no guilt, but strangely, cannot stop these words.)
Andrew Bailey graduated from an MA in contemporary poetry in 1999 and is currently working on design for a London theatre company. These are his first published poems that count. The Fibonacci sequence is produced by adding the two previous numbers together - so 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. What ought to be a mathematical nonsense crops up everywhere from classical architecture to biology.
Page(s) 51
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