Fishmonger
Too old to expect
that he will look back,
I am surprised
to find that the fishmonger
notices my attention.
He is polite, a little
woebegone. He has the build
of a halfback
who still does weight
training. I think of his pale
skin as lightfast,
his muscles as veined
and stable, peremptory,
capable of sudden
kindness or harm.
His eyes have that wet
roundness that seems to say
I can tell that you
are noticing me. He imagines
a constant drill of attention
from customers who, when
they see what a splendid
physique hovers and stretches
under his white coat,
begin to brawl
with their vows,
which they would gladly
and giddily renounce
if only he would spread
his mouth
to shag his smile their way.
—Tom Daley
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Tom Daley’s poetry has appeared in Harvard Review, Massachusetts Review, 32 Poems, Fence, Denver Quarterly, Crazyhorse, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, Witness, Poetry Ireland Review, and elsewhere. He is recipient of the Dana Award in Poetry and the Charles and Fanny Fay Wood Prize from the Academy of American Poets. FutureCycle Press published his first-full length collection of poetry, House You Cannot Reach—Poems in the Voice of My Mother and Other Poems, in the summer of 2015. He leads writing workshops in the Boston area and online for poets and writers working in creative prose.