My Muse is in Bed with the Deputy-Director of Quality Assurance

Damian Garside

Her beauty grows on him
but slowly, so slowly
as if a thawing-out process.

He is looking for a symmetry he cannot find in her
no matter how hard or closely he looks

mapping parts of her body he had hitherto no idea about
he wonders whether he will feel empowered enough to give them the required attention.

If he were to explore his feelings in words
then it would have to be in couplets
each line bisected by a
razor-sharp caesura.

It is bizarre to think that
he could so tax her patience

erroneously she was of the opinion
that he would be bringing
skills from the field
and a rich resume
of sexual experiences

failing which, stories.

When he told her
‘the first line in my poem is ever-so self-reflexive’
she was quick to caution him
against fudging the boundaries
between art and life

adding that she admired
such piano-player hands
though they had, in all probability,
never touched a key;

played a note.

‘My dear’ she added, in exercising her authority,
‘quality should be
slightly indefinable yet
immediately apparent’

all I can say is that
spouting some William Blake childhood truth of a
cistern/fountain aphorism

I hope he rose to meet the challenge
so much depending on it.

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