BY HATTIE KING
Copyright is held by the author.
It landed clumsily.
A damp spot,
His lips half on mine,
His wiry hair scratching
My cheeks.
One in the morning,
A new day rearing its head
In an ugly surprise.
The cold of the night
Sinks into my skin. Trembling
In my thin dress, I pull away.
It takes a second
Him pulling me closer, me pushing away
It took longer,
For reality to kick in.
The inevitability,
The unpleasantness I’d hoped to avoid
Words clumsily spoken
They gain eloquence, the umpteenth time they’re said
Rehashing details with every listener.
Desires exchanged,
He wanted a romcom
I wanted a friend
Neither of us got what we wanted.
***
Hattie King is a 19-year-old writer of both poetry and prose. They are studying Creative Writing and English Literature at Lancaster University, U. K. They have published some short prose in small magazines and entered some writing competitions in the past.
