TALIA MARSHALL

 

Hair

 
When Samson walked into the salon 
he asked Delilah to take it all off 
 
made something kneel right down inside her 
name like a sigh and her body the same 
 
but all he meant was his hair, tawny and coarse 
dark as a lion’s mouth, she wanted 
 
to walk around in it, pitch a tent 
and so with the scissors 
 
she cut and she wept, told him 
all she’d ever wanted 
 
was to curl like Lucy 
round the soft cheek of Aslan 
 
to remove his muzzle and soothe 
his great bare head with girl.
 

Cluedo

 

The head is a house divided in rooms. And you’re in the kitchen today, absorbed in the business of eggs, lemons and sugar, watching the slick resolve of butter dissolve into their curd. But there it is, his electric tread in the attic, audible even when the radio’s on. Especially then, because you’re a sucker for easy listening and you want him to make his descent to the kitchen and witness your steady domestic miracles. He says he’s content in the attic, with its slant on the sea and horizon, the swallows are nesting and his footsteps can whittle you down. He knows when your eyes are windows, raised to the roof of your head, so he hides behind the almanacs, and there is no future.

The bedroom is white and holds his facsimile, the o.k. smell he left on your pillow. But the neon flip of the digital clock at 3am announces that the real version hasn’t rung, and although he’s not the recurrent tsunami dream that’s woken you – the waves crashing over and over – or the other dream you have where your teeth collapse out your mouth, he’s incited their return. Curse him and ask your sheets to save you, you wash them once a week so they owe you one, how well you take care of them, practising hospital corners immersed in the joy of measured linen.

You take your house wherever you go, the idea of it and the idea of him looming in the attic. Sometimes you have people over but they keep asking about the strange noise upstairs, mostly because you keep talking about it. Yes, they say, it’s clean here but it smells desperate and all we want from you is light entertainment, so pass the wine. They are no help, using your bathroom and then barking instructions from the patio, they make a mockery of your indoor outdoor flow. So you use them like wallpaper, but they are poor insulation for the noise in the attic.

What you hope, in the vein of the hallway, is that that one day, the house will shift, or you will, you’ll learn to make do with other rooms. Let’s say, the light in the study is benevolent, that it makes you dry and clear as the monk in the library. You are prepared then, to make your ascent to the attic, where you find there’s a tiger, his toe caught in her teeth, like the feathers that hang from the mouth of your housecat. Let’s say, you’re not afraid because you’ve read Born Free and fancy yourself a woman in tune with Big Cats, that there’s lore of the jungle ‘contact’. She lets you lead her down the stairs and into the kitchen, your hand a grateful towel round her neck after victory. To give her a saucer of milk while you sit at the table, a reward for the silence now bursting from the attic, clad in the vision, the comic splay of his carcass.

 

dice

 
It was the summer the coyote landed in our yard 
but we were never there. It was like that then 
 
it was June and people threw themselves at each other 
or was it December, the month it makes sense 
 
to stand outside the glare of the corner dairy 
and eat lemonade popsicles, or raspberry for 
 
their bright vermilion tongues. There were other 
things but I forget them. Once I brought seven 
 
oranges home in a red net bag. You were there, 
or maybe it was Steve, you would have liked Steve 
 
he was a good man. I had this dream about you and him 
and you met, and really didn’t like each other. Never mind 
 
my friend says the only person in your dreams is you 
I said no but it made sense at the time, for their neon 
 
arc in the dark yes of sleep, where death’s 
a sweet white thing that swallows its tail 
 
and has no end to it, but your body’s dive 
through the slack parachute of sheets. 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Talia Marshall lives on the main road of a small town.
This is not as bad as it sounds.