Luke Palmer

Desire | Leisure Centre

O men of the swimming pool changing room | give me
your panting | wet breath charged with your lungs’ blood
| that has kissed your heart through a gauze | thin
as a wedding veil | you | fresh from the pool | marshalling
your clouds of spent air | let me gather them | such exhalations
your vocal chords sing | the uh of labour | the uh
of investment | and you in the shower | slick and whistling
your hot and coursing life | whistle to me | I will stitch it
with these others | men of the swimming pool changing room
permit me | I shall wear your panting | a garment
of sighs | beneath this hasty workshirt | warm | it shall cover me
tonight | and by morning they shall mist my window | these tiny beads
you have laced me with | and I thank you | I thank you

Luke Palmer lives and works in Wiltshire. His debut pamphlet, Spring in the Hospital, won the Prole Pamphlet contest in 2018. Recent work has appeared in Lighthouse, Shearsman Magazine, Poetry Birmingham and Erotoplasty (collab. with Vik Shirley). His first novel, Grow (Firefly Press) is due in April. Tweets: @lcpalmerpoet