Significant Other

A cloud takes on the shape of a tortoise.

The tortoise can never
repay the gesture. Unashamedly,

its owner once believed that it answered

hello in its reptilian hiss
as she once believed that he, who delighted

her body, delighted her body

only. Did the creature ever think
a thought her way?

The tortoise snaps its tortoisey jaws

eating all that’s laid on
without looking up.

From Significant Other. Reproduced with kind permission of Carcanet.

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About Isabel Galleymore Isabel Galleymore in Conversation with the Forward Prizes