Sam Rossi-Harries

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Play

Not just the bike, nor the boy (pure joy)
barrelling backwards over Coke cans
on the floor of a football cage,
but the creature, nearby and nozzled onto
the wall of a boxing gym, part alligator,
part meaty mammal and, quite frankly,
fucking awful. It watches as the boy bunny hops,
makes engine noises, is for a moment
miraculously alone. I bite the tip of my tongue
off when the boy’s back wheel slips.
Blood on black gravel. Creature licks its lips.
When the boy looks up, I smile, useless,
but he sees only behind me, the wall, the
drumgod sitting amid its battered palette
and beating paradiddles. He steadies his chin.
Sniffs. Spits. Busies himself pulling out grit.
This I know will be the first of many burials
and me, I just want someone, anyone, to see.

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SAM ROSSI-HARRIES (he/him) is a London-based writer of poetry and fiction. His work has been published in Belleville Park Pages, Jungftak and Sleepy House Press. He is working on a poetry pamphlet and a debut novel. Find him on Twitter @SamRossiHarries.