Timperley
Leisure centres
the stench of them like cabbage pie in Moscow
I have loved men from the coast who cannot swim
I am always seeking a challenge
you’ve knocked me sideways:
there are hometowns and then there’s this
when they talk of the palimpsest of place
I don’t think they mean Timperley
What good is a muesli woman
or a woman made of gorse?
One day you’ll wake up and realise
I was right about everything
there is no such thing as girlfriend material
I only made you up
in Go Outdoors
Have a nice weekend, I think you’re interesting
My favourite topic is our mutual friends
of which we have none
I have never been this funny
you are nice to people in shops
in the gallery there is
hot pink tape on our shoes
I feel like a god
an art gallery god
I am face blind apart from
you sometimes
and at night you roll me
across the wet grass
to a gentle stop
outside my mother’s porch
___________
Lucy Holt is a writer who lives in Manchester. her non-fiction and poetry has appeared in The Observer, 3:AM Magazine and Ache Magazine. In 2020 she was named a New Poet by The Poetry Business.