A True Version
honest to god
i can’t bear
to look at myself
in the mirror
i stalk her she’s my new poem in her fitted coat and high heels on the number 10 bus put bars on the lines
last night
i told him
Megan’s seeing
a married guy
in the morning she’ll wake to cadence and pauses rhythms of wingbeat flocking the page
that’s good
he says
if it
makes
her happy
she’ll soon forget her passionless marriage when i leave her here for others to find
then i say so you
don’t mind
if i start fucking
whoever?
let’s hope they bring food let’s trust they bring fresh hope that she isn’t alone in this fortress i’ve built her
that’s how low
we’ve sunk
rock
bottom
i hear calling in my sleep she wants to go home she wants her own grievance
i can’t
stand
to see
myself
these days
she wants the truth of her own shadow
Linda Rose Parkes lives in the Channel Islands and has published four collections, the latest, This Close, was launched last winter. She continues to run poetry workshops and is also a painter.