"Happy Idiot (I’m a Eurydice)" by SK Grout

Happy Idiot (I’m a Eurydice)

1.
at sundown, my skin has pinkened back
so that the bruise can swallow your name.

I roll over and see/unsee the television
static, left over from the last century.

it is a night of bristle rain and stinging
wind and soon we will all be marigolds

flying on wonder. I clear sleep, and
think of absence as a beauty,

yours especially.

2.
other people praise rain as a comfort
but I am kept awake by the neighbor’s

gate, dirging like a Protestant minister.
I will not sing in return.

dreams tantalize with the burst
of fresh juicy capsicum, red string, falling

into a field of wildflowers, horses dancing
without audience, the offbeat, a book.

I singe like the blackness around me

3.
you (re)turn with the sun.
slip inside like a smug first.

it is a mistake to think this is
romance, but if we learn one thing

from the movies, it’s that the world
can be a wonderful place.

your mistake to think the choice is
feedback. I rub my fingers inside the

marigolds’ faces as they stir to the new day

SK Grout

SK Grout (she/they) is a writer, editor and poet. She grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand, lived in Germany and now splits her time between London and Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau. Her debut pamphlet, ‘What love would smell like,’ is published with V. Press (2021). She holds a post-graduate degree in creative writing from City, University of London, and is a Feedback Editor for Tinderbox Poetry. Her poetry and reviews are widely published in the US, UK, Europe and the Pacific, including Ambit, Cordite Poetry Review, dialogist, Glass, Poetry Wales and Finished Creatures. Website: https://skgroutpoetry.wixsite.com/poetry

Headshot: Bettina Adela

Headshot Credit: Staff