Cheese in a budget hotel room by Holly Magill

Cheese in a budget hotel room

Wouldn’t do this at home – naked and plateless.

Here is different. We set it on the bed, a decisive

wedge of intent, local and organic. Reverently we

undress it from waxed paper, inhale its ripe tang.

Beautiful thing, pungent with lust – we smile stupid

smiles over our bounty, mouths wet. I break first, grab

with both hands, bring it to my lips, bite deep. Taste

soothes my tongue – warm as a hand cupping a loved

belly in half-doze before daylight. Our prize gives in

my grip, crumbs tumble between my tits, and we’re

gone, a thumbprint-flick invite to roll under every

clean sheet we never knew we wanted. The frenzy

hits – my tooth-marks a grooved welcome to yours:

you bow your head down to it, begin to eat.

Holly Magill’s poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. In 2019 she won first prize in the Cannon Poets ‘Sonnet or Not’ competition. She co-edits the online poetry magazine, Atrium – www.atriumpoetry.com. Her debut pamphlet, The Becoming of Lady Flambé, was published by Indigo Dreams in 2019. Her second pamphlet 20 was published by Drunk Muse Press in Spring 2023.