Baby Grand
When we met in the restaurant
you were wearing a sharp suit and glossy shoes
and your voice sounded so unlike
the one I knew
that I couldn’t help but think of the piano
by the south-facing window
where, before you came in, I lifted the lid
to pick out a tune
after the waitress had smiled her consent,
its feet on dainty casters, its lacquered sheen
and steel strung bed
bathed in record-breaking summer heat
that warped each note
a fraction off key, so it wavered
almost imperceptibly, enough
to reveal the distance
between where it was
and where it should be.
Sonnet
A week
after you left,
and in the shower
this ringlet,
kiss-curl,
satin wisp,
this sleek
strand,
silk thread,
filament,
this sprung
spring, lost
link, final
twist.
_____________
Roy Marshall’s books are The Sun Bathers (2013), The Great Animator (2017)
and After Montale (2019), all from Shoestring Press. An ex-nurse and sometime lecturer in creative writing, Roy lives just outside Leicester where he walks the dog at least once a day, every day of the year.