After the Wedding
Back then, you were so London
with your ecstatic white teeth,
guest lists blissed from your fingers
like weather reports.
I have adored your ankles,
snaffled the fine hairs that crisp
the small of your back,
& now, after I’ve licked
the soap-traces from the underside
of your knees, we find ourselves
stalled in the marriage bed;
your maiden name
a peppercorn crushed
in my mouth. A chandelier
hangs above us, the links of the chain
are tiny & numerous, & if one came loose,
if it bent under the strain,
well, I guess what I’m asking is
where do we go
from here?
(from Absence has a weight of its own)
Daniel Sluman is a 25 year old MA student based in Gloucestershire, his debut full-length collection, Absence has a weight of its own, was published in summer 2012, through Nine Arches Press.
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