IN THE PARLOUR

IN THE PARLOUR

IN THE PARLOUR

‘Every connection is a revelation.
People I pierced and tethered secretly
always dreaded the giveaway clink:
now that’s all out in the open. Look
in the portfolio, towards the back,
for a picture of the man whose penis
has been sliced lengthwise, the two
halves of the glans like segments
of dusty purple fruit, pinned by metal.
You can’t see it but the gold
ends in an anus-ring. That’s his wife,
the skinhead Aphrodite overleaf,
her clitoris bound to her nipples,
nose and navel, as if she thinks
the insurrectionary body might break up
and break away, escape from itself
into a Balkans of erogenous zones...
In the last photograph they stand
face to face, chin to brow, the space
between them bright with chains.
Leaning backwards, they hold each other up.’