Susan Wicks
Room service
The staff at this hotel are chosen
for their beauty. They come and go
discreetly with their airborne trays
of sweating glasses, peanuts, San Miguel
while the pianist dreams over the keys,
half-closing his almond eyes.
Out there, beyond the orchids,
pineapples, papayas, palms fan out
their fingers on the night glass
like starving children. Nine floors up
across my bed a terry robe extends
flat arms, a complimentary caress.
I’ll whisper my strangled bidding—
omelette, asparagus—and when he comes
I’ll tip too much. Next night I’ll find the phone
within arm’s reach, the menu open
on my pillow, think of his perfect lips
politely shaping, You are alone?
for their beauty. They come and go
discreetly with their airborne trays
of sweating glasses, peanuts, San Miguel
while the pianist dreams over the keys,
half-closing his almond eyes.
Out there, beyond the orchids,
pineapples, papayas, palms fan out
their fingers on the night glass
like starving children. Nine floors up
across my bed a terry robe extends
flat arms, a complimentary caress.
I’ll whisper my strangled bidding—
omelette, asparagus—and when he comes
I’ll tip too much. Next night I’ll find the phone
within arm’s reach, the menu open
on my pillow, think of his perfect lips
politely shaping, You are alone?
Page(s) 46
magazine list
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- 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