Refraction

As January’s sun, appearing
hot through glass, desire is predicated
on taking accurate temperature and my
mercury is risen.

More trees are willows than you might think,
my body is catkins, buds, so much has changed
since you visited the neighborhood, I’ve built
a park I thought you’d like and that you’ve
never seen. 

All writing about desire suffers for lack
of subtlety or candor, when all I want
is to haunt you like Kathy, 
tap on your window and say 
Heathcliff, come on, this isn’t over unless you fuck me,
or tell me why you won’t.

— ALICE TARBUCK

Alice Tarbuck is an award-winning poet and writer. She has taught Creative Writing at the University of Dundee, and is a 2019 Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Awardee for poetry. Her debut non-fiction book A Spell in the Wild: a year (and six centuries) of Magic is published by Hodder & Stoughton.