Julia Casterton
Steady
Sniffing round the rooms for dirty clothes to wash
I see the dripped milk from our bodies’ lips
on all the pants that kick around.
Ointment. Oil. The sap that drips
from trees when winter’s over. The way
oil lustres things: that widow’s jar that never empties,
honey in the carcass of a brave animal,
His feet waiting to be smeared and smoothed
and dried by her hair, my own hair
sticky with a stranger’s wonderful secretions,
so that when, in that restaurant, my sister says
Why’s your hair so stiff? I reach up idly and reply
Oh, it’s just Fernando. And the way
our pants keep it all a sweet dark secret
so that when the one I want walks through the door
and all my doors bang open and closed
nothing is visible to the naked eye
because the still small voice has whispered
Steady. Keep your Pants On
and nobody need ever know
that the King of Glory has walked in
and my gates have lifted up their heads.
Page(s) 127
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