D A Prince
Simon, My Gardener
She says it twice, lapping its sweetness.
Like slipping silk
over her head, her breasts, her hips,
and letting it settle. Her words fall well,
as though she’s spent time
getting the line just right, testing the cut
after Simon. This way
brings out her best points: her lips
curving around his name, a serpent hiss in her teeth,
then the ghost of a moan
before possession’s rhyme winds him more tightly to her.
She practises – in front of a mirror; beneath
the apple trees he pruned; privately beside water.
Her reflection approves, and likes the repetition.
She bestows it on neighbours who do not
know Simon – women wearing torn cottons, T-shirts, trainers,
women who are frayed and patched,
who do not fit their clothes.
She vouchsafes it to her dressing table
and amber glass and swan’s down;
she hands it graciously over a Bokhara rug
and lifts it into the light.
Twice isn’t enough, but at her age
she knows what pleasure costs in sagging skin
and hoards herself. There will be other times.
Page(s) 48
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