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in the belly of the wail - adele evershed


Unable to sleep / she is waning / and wondering if she really needs to wax anymore / finally a sticky embrace / snatches her away / to a place of vivid dreamscapes / and old liaisons / a Soho restaurant where she’d slung shots / with a cowboy she’d just met / later the fizz between her legs / like popcorn / slicked in butter / suddenly she is in the backseat of her Ford Fiesta / slurping herself from a lover’s fingers / and just as the sauce is on the tip of her tongue / she wakes.


Now she tastes like a gamey sea creatures / musty and over seasoned / yes she’s partaken / she’s old not dead / yet the only sauce available / is the vinegary mint variety / made by her husband / from herbs in his newly cultivated garden / she tells her friends / he planted it when she gave up / letting him plough her patch / she always liked a good Panto gag / and once she’d even tried a gag / but didn’t love it / she’d always had too much to say.


She rolls like a beached whale / in her sopping sheets / and decides to seek refuge / in the water / dancer vibrator / she pops the cap / anticipating the fizz / and then the insult / his warming breath pours over her / he—the one spared the bloody smears of life / and the Sirocco sighings / of a dry fanny / she is incandescent / in the flood of this change / while he slumbers on / rumbling from both ends / unworried / unaffected / unwoke.


So she rears up / like the beast she’s become / and swallows him whole


Adele Evershed was born in Wales and has lived in Asia before settling in Connecticut. Her poetry and prose have been published in a number of journals and anthologies Adele has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net for poetry. Finishing Line Press published her poetry chapbook, Turbulence in Small Places this year and her novella-in-flash, Wannabe, was published by Alien Buddha Press in May. Her second poetry collection, The Brink of Silence will be available from Bottlecap Press later this year.

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