Carole Satyamurti
The Bed
When they were young, and she a captive
in her parents’ house, he’d climb
in through her window. They’d whisper,
touch, slip together in her narrow bed
until the rooster pulled them separate
and sent him, singing, to the field.
Their marriage bed was ample.
Child after child was born in it
until, pushed to the side, he played
the hero in the field, the tavern.
Resentments multiplied; the bed was
for sleeping, back towards back, alone.
In middle age, as she gained flesh,
he lightened, rolled towards the centre.
One night, he floated from his dream,
found her arm curved around him,
hand tucked under his side,
and she was murmuring an old song.
In their seventies, he took a saw,
halved the bed’s width. Climbing in
earlier each day, they found a dozen
different ways of fitting, fusing
at last into a shape so perfect
they felt no further need to move apart.
Page(s) 51
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