Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 244, Volume 45 Number 2, November - December 2018.

Two Poems Rory Waterman
Epithalamium

A Postscript for A.

He’s in love with being in love
but how much love is left to give
at 78? She’s 46,
Romanian, and here to live:

he’s signed to her his full devotion
and terraced house. Now he sits
alone all day in a tiny room
he used to only sleep in. It’s

a refuge. She sleeps where his office was
on a single mattress he acquired
then busies herself: this kitchen needs
stripping, then the yard. She’s tired.

She fends off calls: ‘No here, he sleepink’
she says a few times every day,
to grainy voices down the phone
who’d called to chat chess, poetry
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image