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This poem is taken from PN Review 230, Volume 42 Number 6, July - August 2016.

Six Poems James Womack
Co-respondent

That morning, N and the baby being asleep,
I sat down to write a rebuttal to one of your love-letters.
But you know how it is:
you set out to perform some ordinary task,
to buy the bread, maybe, or else I won’t be long,
just taking the videos back to the shop,

and then round a corner
the full majesty of the goddess Freya
strikes you in the face and blinds you.
Which was how it was. I cannot live in this world,
the goddess of beauty and death lounging
at street corners. Was this what I meant to write?
Anyway, I never took the videos back.
One of them was our film, if you remember,
or don’t think it odd that shared possessions
are alleged to define or fix relationship.
...


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