michael pollentine — three fucking poems
Object she’d passed herself around tongues offered to suck dick of course, each would accept and she’d lead them straight upstairs to the toilets in the gay club ‘tell me when’ and most were gentlemen and either withheld or bust into the toilet bowl they’d return triumphant and watch in horror as she’d fixate another and kiss them and all the gay men would chuckle as she led their eyes upstairs later in the eve she zeroed in on me started chatting still human so we talked all I caught was damaged and tragic and far too young and as she moved to kiss I turned away and felt bad ‘cos she felt bad I resumed my drink and watched her lead another up the stairs through the door marked ‘Gentlemen’. Disconnect the idea of her lust was like sucking the flavour out of an iced lolly juices fellating the tongue so much that the taste of her skin disappointed and the colour of her hair couldn’t be swallowed or savoured and the embrace somehow felt less than tangible bottled intention as exotic as the aroma of the first night’s conversation cut heavy and unbreathable this time around the actions mechanical unpliable awkward like the crunch of reluctant images in a slideshow shared to a hurried end. The Promise of Oiled Stars with the promise of oiled stars the gentle violence of a covert predator her lined dimpled innocence soft facing orbs contracted secrets lapped tender caress. now concealed, a feeler scouring ivory daggers deep welling globes transform into vacuous crushing portals. siphoned and forgotten before the dance of reality clinch leaves a deafening nothing. someone else hears the music her formed smile glistening with the promise of oiled stars. MICHAEL POLLENTINE'S poetry has featured in Outcast Press magazine (Vol. 9 – where it also won Best Poem), A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bristol Noir, Terror House Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Roi Fainéant Press, Bear Creek Gazette, Don’t Submit, Black Scat Review, Alien Buddha Press (including Best of 2022) and many others. He lives in South Wales with his wife. michaelpollentine | Instagram | Linktree HOME