David Cobb: ROOM

.

Room is very white in every part, well-proportioned, and breathes conditioned air.

I am a torso of half-roasted meat. Torpid.

Room and I are sharing a day of rest, a day out of the sun, the third of our holiday together. Under her cool breath she supplies the answer to three-down in the crossword puzzle we are doing. Pervading atmosphere of a place. Ambience.

This sets us to swapping words in our different languages. Room's is Italian and she tells me her real name is in fact Camera. I begin to suspect she's been taking pictures of me all this steamy afternoon, focussing on me her lens hidden somewhere up there in the Sicilian soffits and catching me in the nude.

To have carnal knowledge of Room I plump up her white pillow and imagine she is Leda and I am the swan.

from Etna's heat
flowing around my thighs
the melted snows

by David Cobb

Braintree, Essex, England

from Business in Eden, Equinox Press, 2006