He told me about the Borzoi,
that he saw when he was a child –
1956, roughly
How he loved watching it run
So graceful, he was captivated
And I can see it –
the sun low in the sky,
reflected in bright swipes
across the rippled sand
The beautiful creature
cutting across the landscape,
fur damp from the waves
Gliding, serene
I can’t imagine his boy’s face
but I see his blue eyes,
clear as day,
as I’ve seen them all of my life;
insistent as he strode in from work,
briefcase in hand;
full of mischief as he passed me
a spoonful of golden syrup
A secret, shared
Tall man, hands as big as dinner plates
All that presence, brimming at the edges
Barely concealing a core
as soft as a sighthound’s gaze
Rosie Couch is a Paralegal Assistant based in Cardiff, recently awarded a PhD in English Literature at Cardiff University. Her thesis, ‘Pragmatically Bad’ Women: Looking at the Contemporary Femme Fatale, traces the re-emergence of the femme fatale figure in twenty-first century women’s writing, film and television alongside concurrent feminist discourses. Rosie enjoys writing poetry and film reviews.
T: @rosiecouch | I: @rosieclarecouch
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