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Buying a bed

Together they flung themselves back
on the hillocky satin mattress
which barely yielded. Four feet
hung over the base, their heads
a foot from the headboard where pillows
would raise them. Eyes on the ceiling
first, then one another. What support,
they thought, in a bed bought by a mother
who is forcing a credit card on the salesman
and arranging delivery for this afternoon.
It’s recommended by the College of Chiropractors
the salesman was saying when the transaction
was complete and they were being bowed out –
the young lovers holding hands, the mother
on her way back to her hotel bed – vast
and cool and hard, an Arctic of tight sheets –
following as the giver of gifts must
down the aisle of beds – theirs the best
now there are no bodies lying across it
now their bodies have left no imprints.
 
Poetry
Johanna Aitchison
Michele Amas
Angela Andrews
Sarah Barnett
David Beach
Ken Bolton
Jenny Bornholdt
Rachel Bush
Mary Cresswell
Stephanie De Montalk
Cliff Fell
Tom Fitzsimons
Brian Flaherty
David Geary
Bernadette Hall
Kerry Hines
Andrew Johnston
Therese Lloyd
Iggy McGovern
Mary Macpherson
Dora Malech
Vana Manasiadis
Emma Neale
Gregory O'Brien
Lucy Orbell
Zach Savich
Charlotte Simmonds
Marty Smith
Elizabeth Smither  
Abby Stewart
Robert Sullivan
Jo Thorpe
Cath Vidler
Louise Wallace
Ashleigh Young

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