Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

There were opulent red cushions
                           scattered, I asked
                                                      shall we sleep together?
She replied: I was thinking
                           of that, and dressing me
                                                      in a big stiff robe
Which smelled nicely
                           of former occupants, she told me then
                                                      I have not had sex
For X years and that was with
                           a genuine Voodoo man...
                                                      drink and excitement had robbed me
But I came, and saw as I came
                           outlined in the light
                                                      you see pressing closed eyes
An amphora, a horned vase,
                           and withdrew; she lifted her cunt: look!
                                                      she said, I am climaxing
Without you, that is sex-magic!
                           I should have been
                                                      always inside her wide-on,
Eternally and lightly held,
                           but I had had the vision
                                                      which was an enigma,
Until I thought again:
                           it was the image of a womb
                                                      stored with electrical light
Since her last session with
                           the true Voodoo man, and
                                                      the image of the Horned God.
I saw this, and took it away
                           with me; I saw this wearing
                                                      the elixir body-robe
Of one of my predecessors
                           creating in the red flat
                                                      a horned child that compelled me
To listen to the light
                           steady in the lantern within
                                                      I hold it up
In the Red Grove
                           and listen to the touch
                                                      in the Red Grove