Portrait of My Lover as a Spoon

 

When you’re next in Argentina, Lord,
can you get some DULCE DE LECHE for me?
To be gobbled up straight from the tin
with my little spoon
in my big dark house
where I’m pacing about, O Lord,
craving something sweet,
because sweetness and thickness
was where I went wrong, O Lord,
and you’re more like ice
and all I need now is a plastic spoon for my jelly,
O all I need now is a white, moulded spoon
to hold in my hand
as I wait for my white milk jelly.
(You’ll know it, O Lord, by the photograph of the cow
stretching around the tin like a white dachsund.)

first published in Portrait of My Lover as a Horse (Bloodaxe, 2002), Selima Hill 2002, from Gloria (Bloodaxe, 2008), used by permission of the author and the publisher

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