Lovesong 2Eye glare shattered
over stale coffee
in a white polystyrene cup.
Your hands fumble through your hair,
cockroach running fingers
crawling into winter branches.
Caught, hunched over
in setting raspberry jelly,
the rain won’t free me today,
outside undripping.
Black onion words stuck to my eyes
pull me fighting into the night sky,
but you’re looking the other way.
Snarl and spit
you hear nothing -
dropped chewed like a rancid grape.
I climb up and change the channel
flimsy summer Spelling.
Carolyn Smale was born in 1966, lived in New Zealand until 1993, and now lives in Australia. She is a medical doctor and has a toddler. She's been published in The Otago Literary Review, The Otago University Critic, Spindrift (Sydney), and online in Apples and Oranges, Downunder, Gangway, Mefisto, The Melic Review, and A Writer's Choice Literary Journal.
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