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featured poet – Hylda Sims (1932-2020)

Measuring Up

The thing we’re shifting doesn’t fit
in the space that waits for it
it won’t go through the door
or round the corners
checking beforehand ought to warn us
but it isn’t out by more
than an eighth of an inch
I always think that, at a pinch
 
things’ll squeeze in.
It’s an original sin
to believe that deal and chipboard
are similar to wool,
malleable
they’re not, and I’ve ignored
your words, you’ve got all the weight
we’re struggling, trying to keep it straight.
 
Now there’s a spare chest of drawers
on the landing, stranded, mine of course.
We lie there back to back
most of the night
you sulking, me contrite
leaving a draughty crack
not quite an eighth of an inch,
we touch and part, trying to flinch.
 

Hylda Sims

first published in Smiths Knoll, No. 17

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