John Enright
Payback, Merci
She wore colors that ended in e.
Her profession was being an alibi.
Whenever we could we would share a cab
to the airport or different parts of town.
I would laugh so hard I'd lose my breath
and she would have to find it for me
down there between the high heels of her always
mismatched shoes that gave her that famous gait.
She was the celebrity nobody knew,
the girl next door to where I'd always yearned
to have grown up. I would have slept in the snow
to keep her warm, but all I had to do
was pay the man, get a goodnight kiss, and
promise that someday I'd write her a poem.
Her profession was being an alibi.
Whenever we could we would share a cab
to the airport or different parts of town.
I would laugh so hard I'd lose my breath
and she would have to find it for me
down there between the high heels of her always
mismatched shoes that gave her that famous gait.
She was the celebrity nobody knew,
the girl next door to where I'd always yearned
to have grown up. I would have slept in the snow
to keep her warm, but all I had to do
was pay the man, get a goodnight kiss, and
promise that someday I'd write her a poem.
Page(s) 12
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Dream Catcher
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- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
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- 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