On Visiting the Sexual Health Clinic before Work
Our neat nurse,
her shoes
like over-floured cakes,
separates us--
boy / girl.
We hold slips to say
we have been less
than careful.
What we hold back
is worth saying now:
this carelessness
had been our broken bread
some small hours before.
*
The waiting room’s light is:
dark honey mixed
into pasteurized cream.
or
white fat
cut with vinegar.
or (can we say it?)
both: The honey and vinegar,
the fat and the cream.
The cream, fat, vinegar,
and the honey, the honey,
the honey, the honey.
'On Visiting the Sexual Health Clinic Before Work' © Krystelle Bamford.
Our neat nurse,
her shoes
like over-floured cakes,
separates us--
boy / girl.
We hold slips to say
we have been less
than careful.
What we hold back
is worth saying now:
this carelessness
had been our broken bread
some small hours before.
*
The waiting room’s light is:
dark honey mixed
into pasteurized cream.
or
white fat
cut with vinegar.
or (can we say it?)
both: The honey and vinegar,
the fat and the cream.
The cream, fat, vinegar,
and the honey, the honey,
the honey, the honey.
'On Visiting the Sexual Health Clinic Before Work' © Krystelle Bamford.
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