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.
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.