Seducing the Leopard Gecko
by and published in Edition Two of Pomegranate
You wrap yourself in cowslip and walk
to the disused allotment down the road.
The sun pours honey through the leaves:
even this is essential, as is the strip
of bark in your pocket, rubbing brittle
on a needle-fitted badge. There,
between the weeds and strewn tin cans:
a lance of gold lazes on a rock, lasers
beneath a drift of woodchips. You kneel
and hold out the bark from your pocket
like a ringbox, pin the badge, its face
reflective, above your breast pocket.
You have already reclaimed from the charity
shop the terrarium in which you both will live.
The gecko hears your flattery (one must
use flattery) and slips out her brass bullet
of a head, tests the air with a flick,
finding the musk of decayed trees, scent
of the improbable, that mix of the erotic
and the innocent. But you have her now,
palm-locked, squeezing too tightly
this creature you dress in familiar names.
James Midgley
James Midgley’s work has appeared in journals such as The Kenyon Review, Magma, Poetry Review, The New Welsh Review, The Rialto, Stand, and The Warwick Review. In 2008 he received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. He is studying towards a PhD at the University of East Anglia.