Poem of the WeekStrange BedfellowsPoetry

Strange Bedfellows [11]: When This Is All Over

By Tess Barry

When This is All Over

I’m going to tell about the boy
who forced himself on me
in New York City. Tell how
in a vacant storefront, daylight
squashing shadow to surface
across Avenue A, he fisted
my tongue, twisted my limbs,
closed his eyes. Tell that after-
wards I bled and lied. I’m going
to tell about the man who seated
himself next to me at a lavish
west coast wedding. How he
stroked me through dinner speeches,
gardened tables draping him
in damask in scent,
flutes filling throats, his warm hand
under my linen dress, opening
wordlessly fingering skin.
I was there with someone else
but lay awake years wanting him.

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Tess Barry is an American poet shortlisted for the 2015 Manchester Poetry Prize (UK). Twice a finalist for North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and Aesthetica Magazine’s (UK) Poetry Award, she was also shortlisted for the 2014 Bridport Poetry Prize (UK). Her poems most recently appeared or are forthcoming in Mudfish Vol.19, Cordite Poetry Review (Australia), The Pickled Body (Ireland), The Woven Tale Press Literary and Arts Magazine (UK), and online at the Manchester Writing School. Barry is a Fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project and teaches literature and creative writing at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.