The seventeenth poem from my poetry collection Conception. It was first published in raw edge magazine (new writing in the West Midlands) number 19 in autumn 2004.

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The Sofa

The news starts:
it’s ten o’ clock.
He sits, slouched
at the left end of the sofa,
watching tv.
She sits, back straight,
to the right, reading.
In between them
a toy teddy,
ears soft as the blue velvet settee,
with its red wine stains,
sticky patches of chicken balti,
patchouli massage oil
and more recent
splodges of baby food.
The news ends.
He turns to flick teddy
to the floor.
She turns to tidy the toy away.
Their fingers touch.