Blind date by Ros Barber

Here, the creature you dreamt

while your blood was sleeping.

I am half bone, and half the other thing,

that part of you

you won’t own up to.

As long as you like, I have been here

under you feet,

and as long as you like

I’ll stay.

Perhaps.

The best of me I have hidden away

from the music

that drifts from the dance,

in a place that none but the locals

know how to pronounce.

You cannot imagine

what I am about to say to you.

I am astounding.

I am nothing

like my sisters.

— Ros Barber