Clare Chapman
Two-In-The-Morning Feed
Honey and heartsblood, now I hold you tight,
Touch the sparse hair, the warm and fragile bones,
Your clenched and sticky fists like iris buds
Open and cling like sea-anemones.
Innocent smell of sleep and talcum powder!
He semaphores in comfortable gloom,
Makes swimming movements like a diver surfacing.
Now the hot jug steams gently at our feet
To warm the icy bottle from the fridge,
We in our drop of dawn, our glimmer, hold each other,
Weak nightlight shines, warm bedclothes all pushed back.
The rocker creaks: he sighs and sucks and sighs -
We two marooned sit on our wooden island,
Around us other mouths respire in routine rhythm,
Muted existence in those other rooms.
The bottle’s finished - heavy head hangs back,
His mouth’s agape - now he, too, breathes secure,
Replete, replete, in milk contentment.
Hearing the clicks of a contracting house
I sit and rock and rock myself to drowsing -
Light changes and the small birds come to chatter.
Page(s) 7
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