Samuel Prince

La Spezia

Instead, he flicks a royal wave towards La Spezia Gulf,
exhales for emphasis and plunges the quartered lime down

the bottleneck and dams the foam-gush with his thumb.
I prod clotted lobes of candle wax, pick at slick buds of local olives.

We could be snapped by the waiter’s irritant winks for a postcard:
scratch and sniff for tussling scents: cardamom spray vs. coconut balm.

Felicity is a new music discovered in each other, minds dialled in
to the same station, confidants abroad, divested of our regular fronts.

Spinning the table-umbrella’s stem in turns, two bare soles touch,
but it goes without saying — some static fails to crackle —

when he asserts that all that matters is the immediate twenty metres.
What’s beyond can wait. Another word to topple what’s domino-delicate

between us, while behind is the sun’s smoky-mustard midriff,
slow-blushing, reverse easing into a bath, faintly gracing our napes.

Samuel Prince‘s debut collection, Ulterior Atmospheres, was published in 2020 by Live Canon. His work has more recently appeared in Apricot Press, Fauxmoir, Red Door and Thimble Literary Magazine. He lives in Norfolk (UK). More information can be found at www.samuelprince.co.uk