Pam Thompson
Skin
Surfacing, mid-afternoon, we find the bar unlit
and he walks out from the back of it, smiles at us
then switches on a single swinging globe.
I register the sculpture of his shoulders
as you clock his chest, how his waist dips in
and how his thin shirt clings damply where it fits.
He smells of someone else’s naked skin.
As a trumpet announces on the TV
that a bull is being skewered, we sip cold beers,
staring at each other as if we’d never met
and at first, you fail to light my cigarette
but at last, a small flame...
We would like tapas, yes. He indulges us
in infant guidebook terms, is gentle,
like a student on exchange who knows his hosts
are slow to learn, hoists cuttlefish on tongs.
One cerebellum each. We eat to faint applause.
When we’re home, comparing instances
of time and place, neither of us can recall exact
map-references of sweat and aftershave.
and he walks out from the back of it, smiles at us
then switches on a single swinging globe.
I register the sculpture of his shoulders
as you clock his chest, how his waist dips in
and how his thin shirt clings damply where it fits.
He smells of someone else’s naked skin.
As a trumpet announces on the TV
that a bull is being skewered, we sip cold beers,
staring at each other as if we’d never met
and at first, you fail to light my cigarette
but at last, a small flame...
We would like tapas, yes. He indulges us
in infant guidebook terms, is gentle,
like a student on exchange who knows his hosts
are slow to learn, hoists cuttlefish on tongs.
One cerebellum each. We eat to faint applause.
When we’re home, comparing instances
of time and place, neither of us can recall exact
map-references of sweat and aftershave.
Pam Thompson has published two pamphlets of poetry, Spin (Waldean Press, 1999) and Parting the Ghosts of Salt (Redbeck Press, 2000). Poems featured widely in magazines including The North, Smiths Knoll, The Rialto and Mslexia.
Page(s) 50
magazine list
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- North, The
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- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
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