this is really new and very unfinished- if anyone has the time or inclination to offer me any criticism it'd be really really appreciated! specifically what you think about using internal rhyming- if its too clumsy, if it helps the poem to communicate at all, or if its just rubbish!! ok thanks, sally xx

 

The Butcher’s Wife

 

What can I do for you mate?

you ask, and my arms ache

to pull up the leg of my neat,

monday-pressed trousers

and reveal to you the ankle beneath,

where tan gossamer threads contour

my close-shaven ankles so beautifully.

 

It is muscle memory, in my mind

I have done this a thousand times.

I wish you could see me, pretty

in my stocking feet.

 

And though we are both too old,

my ridiculous notion of a womb

swells and blooms

to think of bearing you boys.

 

Boys we could raise thick and strong

on your good cuts of lamb

and my golden apple pie.

Like the one that I brought you,

saying my sister had made too many.