For Mary: 15-50
15.
Grown. Taut.
Started but not yet begun.
Buds of sexuality pucker,
Unknowing what they held inside.
Eyes down, bitten lip.
An unfurnished room.
20.
Ibiza. Him.
Begun but not yet created.
Sex.
Known but not owned.
She is for sale.
Eye contact. Wide smile.
Playing at Four becomes foreplay.
He.
Shiny and new.
Owned but not known.
30.
Baby. Nothing But.
Created but not yet realised.
Sexuality is replaced with Mothercare.
She is owned and she has produced.
Tired eyes, sighing mouth.
Her = Child.
Le
petit mort.
A shrunken room
Littered with debris of
the past
Home to the little cot.
40.
Ten years un-needed.
Discarded but not fully released.
Sexuality is reconstructed in old, betraying
photographs.
Flowers wilt in dry soil, only half-opened.
Eyes worn, time-wrinkled frown.
Identity is unknown to all who occupy.
50.
Grown. Sagged.
Started but not yet begun.
The stretching of time leaves marks on her body.
The perennials turn to seed,
Desaturated, the negative of colour.
Eyes down, bitten lip.
She leaves.
An unfurnished room:
She opens a window and
Breathes in air.
