poetry
Alice Jay

Scavengers

Near the Thames a glimpse –
a woman in magenta in a window.
Henry James stops

walking. My feet soak
in the white bowl. On my lap is
Maggie Verver, whispering

the same words
over and over. I listen
to another woman (less innocent)

on my left. Her toes are turning
vermilion. Her affair,
like my friend’s, is with a woman

wedded to her husband’s money.
When she leaves
I write it all down. Everything

in notebooks. Fat
with secrets. I never tell
a tale without a sin. A glance

on a bridge. A writer walks
slowly. Looking
at backs.


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Copyright (c) 2007  Alehouse Press
Alehouse 2007
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