Valerie Clarke
Heat Wave
When they laid you beside me I didn’t swim
at once into love.
After such struggle, grappling the gas and air machine
so violently
I wrenched its mask from the wall,
after the glittering forceps,
hearing your first intake of Indian-summer heat wave,
I floated free,
borne by the current, nowhere, anywhere.
Wrapped in a towel you were handed over
like pass the parcel.
I checked you carefully, your squashed dictator’s nose,
your fat, full pout,
blue eyes appearing to focus on someone
I wasn’t yet.
Then before I forsook my earlier self—secretary,
on-and-off poet,
a Polish neurologist’s mistress, nervous
and self-indulgent,
I offered one breast, one finger, on which you latched
with all your newborn strength.
at once into love.
After such struggle, grappling the gas and air machine
so violently
I wrenched its mask from the wall,
after the glittering forceps,
hearing your first intake of Indian-summer heat wave,
I floated free,
borne by the current, nowhere, anywhere.
Wrapped in a towel you were handed over
like pass the parcel.
I checked you carefully, your squashed dictator’s nose,
your fat, full pout,
blue eyes appearing to focus on someone
I wasn’t yet.
Then before I forsook my earlier self—secretary,
on-and-off poet,
a Polish neurologist’s mistress, nervous
and self-indulgent,
I offered one breast, one finger, on which you latched
with all your newborn strength.
Valerie Clarke won the Blue Nose Competition 2000/01. Her collection, Dance of Love and Death, was published by NPF in 2001.
Page(s) 63
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