Emily Lloyd: Three Poems

Adultery | Lamb Curry | Diet Coke with Lime: "Guess What it Tastes Like"

Adultery

        — after Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins

She is the secret of my old clock, the clue
of my tapping heels, my Bombay boomerang,
the voice in my suitcase, my unfinished house;
she is the riddle of my double ring.

You are the message in the hollow oak,
my whispered watchword, the password to Larkspur Lane,
the search for the glowing hand, my ghost of a chance;
you are what happened at midnight, the tricks of the trade.

I am the mark on the mirror, the spirit of Fog
Island, the clue in the diary, the crumbling wall,
the patchwork quilt, the pledge of the twin knights;
I am the wailing octopus, end of the trail—

all of us in a great city, in Echo Valley,
at the county fair, on a camel adventure, in Lakeport,
keeping house, at Candy Castle, in Eskimo Land,
at the ice carnival, on the ranch, at Lighthouse Point.

Lamb Curry

This is what I want from prayer: to be left
streaming spices

runneled with sweat, force
glittering in my bowels

the need to chew fennel
after, the need to drink water

as no one’s face appears
in the inscrutable nan

Diet Coke with Lime: "Guess What it Tastes Like"

I guess it tastes like petals on a wet, black bough
I guess it tastes like the farmer's daughter
just after she's milked the cow
I guess it tastes like whatever she'll allow

I guess it tastes like the uncut hair of graves
I guess it tastes like getting your test back
and learning you don't have AIDS
I guess it tastes like the mome raths as they outgrabe

I guess it tastes like blackberry, blackberry, blackberry
I guess it tastes like riding back and forth
all night on the ferry
I guess it tastes like Diet Coke with Cherry

I guess it tastes like world enough and time
I guess it tastes like the night
of cloudless climes
I guess it tastes like nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless

Poet's Biography:

Emily Lloyd is a freelancer by day, librarian at Delaware Tech College by night. Her work has appeared at versedaily.org and mcsweeneys.net, and in various print journals, including Phoebe, The Paumanok Review, and (forthcoming) Smartish Pace. Her chapbook, The Most Daring of Transplants (Argonne House), was the 2004 winner of the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize. She can be found on the web at poesygalore.blogspot.com.