Author Information
MIRYAM AND MADRID.
Miryam meets you at the bar
of the base camp in Madrid.
She has an orange juice
and cereals
and a coffee chaser.
Did you sleep o.k?
you ask, sitting beside her,
with a coffee
and toast and cigarette.
Sure,
she says,
afterwards.
Her eyes light up
like lights
on a pinball machine
when it's played well.
You? she asks,
you sleep all right?
Sure, but the ex-army guy
wasn't too pleased,
me getting back in the tent
at that hour,
you say.
Fuck him,
she says.
No thanks,
you reply.
She sips the juice,
her lips hold the glass
as she drinks,
her mouth is fish-like
as she swallows.
You talk about
the ex-army guy's moans
about his mother's boyfriend,
how they don't
get along(he
and the boyfriend),
and how he feels
left out and how
he got thrown out
the army because
he was suicidal.
She sips,
and you watched
her eyes feasting on you
as they did
the night before,
and you recall her
undressing in
the small space
of her tent,
the girl she shared with
off fucking some guy
she'd met on the coach,
the tall guy
with an Australian accent.
You watched her,
as you disrobed yourself,
the space throwing
you together,
each touching each,
kissing and undressing
and kissing.
He still feel suicidal?
she asks.
Guess so,
you say,
tried to talk him
through it all,
laying there
in my sleeping bag,
half asleep,
listening
and talking to him,
eyes closing,
and his voice
becoming a drone.
Anyway,
he seemed happier after,
snoring not long after,
as I was laying there
thinking of you.
She eats the cereal,
talks about the girl
coming back
just after you left,
well fucked
and happy,
glassy eyed,
giggling
and stinking of booze.
You sip the coffee,
take in her small tits,
pressing against
her coloured top,
flowers and balloons,
patterns, eye catching.
She begs a smoke
from your packet
and you nod,
and she takes one out
and lights up
from the red
plastic lighter,
the cigarette,
held between her lips,
kissable lips,
lickable.
Yes, it had been
a good night,
you and she
and someone
strumming a guitar
from the bar,
nearby,
loudly singing,
not far.
