Bill Greenwell
Bland Date
You write on the paper napkin in leaky biro:
smudge. I wash
your glossed lips with conversation.
You have read Symposium, a not-a-novel
which your forked tongue
describes as if it were a suitcase. Here we go:
water, labels, a thesaurus of locks (hair),
which you open
whenever the waiter leaves.
The order interrupts the threads, the thin ones,
of your consequential chat.
Banal as a banana, you tell me, in strictest
conference, that you have
been married (it might be marinaded) in
umpteen churches, that your kids
have ages. The lasagne freezes
on your palate. I think of home, my pillow,
my face fading
into its skin. What interests me, you reassure me,
is the drone of the bee.
smudge. I wash
your glossed lips with conversation.
You have read Symposium, a not-a-novel
which your forked tongue
describes as if it were a suitcase. Here we go:
water, labels, a thesaurus of locks (hair),
which you open
whenever the waiter leaves.
The order interrupts the threads, the thin ones,
of your consequential chat.
Banal as a banana, you tell me, in strictest
conference, that you have
been married (it might be marinaded) in
umpteen churches, that your kids
have ages. The lasagne freezes
on your palate. I think of home, my pillow,
my face fading
into its skin. What interests me, you reassure me,
is the drone of the bee.
Page(s) 5
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- 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