The purpose

I’m six days late and this is known
as a delinquent period.
We’re amused by this
if nothing else.
The first thing you do
after I say pregnancy out loud
is sit on the loo and search
sensory deprivation tank London.

I see you typing as I brush my teeth.
You find one in Angel
three sessions for £90
which seems like a good deal;
tell me about the tonne of salt
guaranteeing buoyancy
the music they play at first
the lid they shut over you

then silence
and I am very touched
by the slim pellucid fear
folding and unfolding
in the space behind your neck.
I spit, say I’ll come too
and you say that would
defeat the purpose

Clara-Læïla Laudette is a writer, facilitator and journalist. She won Magma’s Judge’s Prize, placed third in the Poetry London Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Oxford Poetry Prize, Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, and longlisted for the National Poetry Competition. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Poetry Review, Propel, Beloit Poetry Journal, fourteen poems and Wet Grain, among others.