Limestone Magazine - Dummy by Oliver Shelley

Dummy by Oliver Shelley

That granite man in Bratislava
with a head like a compressed truck
and a neck strung as tight as a pylon
who spun his glass on the table,
this way and then that, brooding,
furious, each glance he sent our way
so impassive and plainly blunt
that cruelty seemed simplified.
Until his wife and baby came
when delight unwrapped him
so that he took the child
and shook it till its laughter frothed.
Then putting its dummy in his mouth
he sucked it like a cartoon calf.
And all the while his wife sat back
and bit the quick from her nails.