You are here

Hi Honey, I’m Home

Author: 
Rebecca Goss

Two soft packets of Marlboro on the sideboard 

and she knew he’d arrived. 

She lit one, moved to the table 

and saw SURPRISE written in spilt sugar. 

She couldn’t help thinking of flies. 

He was in bed for certain, waiting for her 

to join him in pseudo-sleep. 

Thinking of his mouth, she almost went upstairs, 

but telephoned her sister 

and arranged to meet in a Tapas bar. 

She added D and a question mark 

to his greeting on the table, 

picked up his cigarettes 

and left the front door open.

 

share

From 14 No 8 (Aug 2009)

Explore more

RELATED POEMS

Household

by
Henry Shukman

The tons of brick and stone, the yards of piping,

the sinks and china basins, three toilets, the tiles,

and the tons of wood in floors, chairs, tables,

the yards of flex and cable that wrap the house

like a net, the heavy glassed front door, the gate

onto the street, the rippled sheets of window,

the yew tree by the back, the pictures, books, piano:

what would it all weigh? One kiss, one breathed

declaration, and there it is: the mass of love.

 

Home
Enjoy this poem

Remote

by
Ra Page

Although I only use a few

its rack of buttons feels familiar

– a scientific calculator

to school kids yet to work out pi.

 

I play the channels with one thumb,

cross by stepping stones of touch,

touch, touch from floodlit football pitch

to chat show guest, to this sit com.

 

But now I’ll have to share the thing,

give up my relay race from news

to news, budge over for someone else

to sit, with tired legs, strange

 

tastes. She points afresh: to archive

footage, video-recorded

lifestyles…jobs I once considered,

places I thought I’d one day live.

 

Home
Enjoy this poem

Earth Ocean

by
Apollinaire

- to Giorgio de Chirico

 

I built a house in the middle of the ocean

Its windows rivers streaming from my eyes

Octopuses storm the walls we hold onto

Hear their triple hearts beat beaks rattle the panes

                           Sodden house

                           House on fire

                           Quick season

                           Season of song

              The planes are dropping eggs

              Mind the anchor that one swings

Mind the inkjet that one squirts

A good thing you've come from the sky

The earthbound octopuses are trembling

And we're nothing but clever gravediggers

Pale octopuses of chalk seas pale-beaked octopuses

You can tell there's an ocean round this house

It never sleeps

 

Home
Oceans, Seas, Rivers
Animals & Pets
Enjoy this poem