[When the soldier’s shadow passed over our twinned bodies]

When the soldier’s shadow passed over our twinned bodies
            like an unfocused ghost in its lament

I felt a premonition
            where the desert of lapwings circling thirty-one wedding dresses
            was a portent in the foreground

Whilst the sweat from Raphael’s fingers remains unlicked upon my fingers

            we had separated only seconds before, like a wind
            from the noose in the palms that has just kissed his neck

I felt the bird’s choral auger: I followed a lace shawl slither off
            I saw it break down
            I saw it walk down
            I saw it decompose and rot

            down the wind’s old familiar aisle and right into the sea

Excerpt taken from Wedding Beasts.