out by the docks?
The image of her sitting with that goat, serene,
then nude, entwined, flashed through and stung my
eyes, I thought of him with her, with them – all three – I
wondered if he’d done it even then –
maybe, I said.
His hand was round her waist, flat
on her stomach, slightly gripping in a way that made me
ache,
no no no
sad or sick?
I didn’t know,
I felt like I might vomit tears –
I stumbled back into the bar,
Snake Boy was in the corridor by the
toilets talking to a girl the age
we must have been
back then,
so young, Ava.
No no no…
She was laughing,
What do you mean you’re going to make me wet?
She said
Like this, he said and poured
his drink across her shirt.
She gasped, looked
genuinely shocked – hurt
even,
he was laughing meanly.
See?
She caught herself,
matched his laugh,
hey, she said, that’s cold,
and I thought how much better
it would have been
if she had hit him.
The song changed in the bar – fiddles,
and a thumping beat –
…if it hadn’t been for Cotton-Eyed Joe
I’d been married long time ago
