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Poetry

Wife of Osiris

Meryl Pugh

An extract from Meryl Pugh’s pamphlet, Wife of Osiris, published by Verve Poetry Press in May 2021.

 

She dreamt, she remembers, the night she signed the contract.

Something about a bathtub, something about a surgical saw.

 

She stares at the tunnel wall. The platform is deserted.

 

Something about her leg. If she takes a step, will it bear her

weight? Rough barbs around her thigh, still fresh.

 

                                                  §

 

Summer in a city park. Sweet chestnut in full flower at noon

smells savoury, like good, clean cock. Lime blossom is sweet

like freesias, like jasmine, but with a citrus edge. She sipped

her tisane and returned his gaze, those centuries ago. Tilleul,

she said.

 

Now look.

 

 

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