Margot

I watched her smoke cigarette after
cigarette behind the bike shed
always in her white dress
white socks white shoes black
cigarettes to match her tar-slick hair
small burns on her fingers
hidden by silver rings
white nail-varnish

her small face held in a hateful glow
spectral as she looked and found me
I hated the obsession but could not stop

Mr Smith says she’s been hit
by a car that morning in assembly
that night I see her floating
above me in bed unsmiling
I touch her cold dry skin
her dark mouth her breast
remember the way she had looked
at me with a knowing
I touch her
my insides protest

Rochelle Roberts is a writer and editor based in London. Her debut pamphlet is forthcoming with Broken Sleep Books in 2022 and she has had poems published by Perverse, Streetcake magazine and Severine, amongst others.