How Much Sickness Are We Talking, Exactly?
For Ben
For we’ve already had more than our fair share,
fevered and sweaty in our whirlwind love,
and are you sick of me yet, darling? Anyway
as I fall over, fall further into this, as a date
is set, as our goose is cooked, love?
And where is this health they talk of, this absence
of aching pains, these that I feel for the taking
of you, for the lack of you, here, by my side?
I would marry you daily, if I had enough dresses.
Whether you work in Aldi or add
the word Doctor at the start of your name,
whether I’m driving barefoot across America, trying
to learn your songs. Whether we’ve babies on the rug
and little else but this love, love. And, after all, these
setbacks are simply more stories we can tell.
Susie Wild is a poet, writer, journalist, critic, lecturer, festival organiser and editor based in Cardiff. Her debut poetry collection Better Houses is out now through Parthian Books. The Art of Contraception was her first book. It was long-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2011 and won ‘Fiction Book of the Year’ in the Welsh Icons Awards 2010. Her Kindle novella Arrivals was released globally through Parthian Books in May 2011. She edited the illustrated short story anthology Rarebit for Parthian’s 21st birthday, released December 2013. Illustrated by John Abell. She is Publishing Editor at one of Wales’ Leading Indie Publishers, Parthian Books. @Soozerama
Note: Today is Susie and Ben’s wedding day. Congratulations from us at IS&T!