Philip Hammial

BRIDE TO BE


Sick with cough & counter-cough
how rise from this bed to feel
my bride to be – my
clammy hands – who, in any case,

is already, this bride, the mother
of nine men? Brothers
to a man, all eight
around my bed to wish me a speedy

recovery that I might do
what I'm expected to do with a more
savoury someone than this bride

who now, touched to the quick,
has fled my bed,
is refusing to be.