Aubade

Bring the muse into the kitchen   

                   Walt Whitman

A man is squeezing oranges in my kitchen.

I am down the corridor in bed

and he is squeezing oranges

in my kitchen.

From where I lie

I cannot see the man

but I’ve deduced

that he

is squeezing oranges.

There is something tremendously erotic

about a man

squeezing oranges.

What is erotic is the sound.

This man

has found my orange squeezer

without my prompting.

He does not know I know

he’s squeezing oranges.

Lying here, listening

to the sound of a man

secretly squeezing oranges

at 1.09 of a Sunday afternoon,

I am struck by the fact

that I’ve never heard any sound

quite so erotic

as the sound of a man

squeezing oranges.

“Aubade” is from  Heimlich’s Manoeuvre (Smith Doorstop Books, 2013)