Ménage à trois

Anna Kisby is an archivist and mother of three, living on the south coast of England. After growing up in London she studied Literature and Film at the universities of East Anglia, Sussex and the Sorbonne, taught English in Prague and sold cowboy boots in Massachusetts. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines including ARC, Mslexia and The Moth and been placed in competitions. Recently she won the New Writer single poem prize and was a finalist in Live Canon 2012.

"Ménage à trois" was published in The Interpreter's House 51, 2012.

Ménage à trois

after Lucian Freud

Her pregnant breast is fresh-egg lovely. She lets me peel it
from the velour of her gown. No nibbles — it’s Look
don’t touch, she says. Her robe spills like yolk
across the plate of her waist. Only the albino dog
dares get close, with his muscly chin and meat-breath,
the stubble of his underbelly that prickles
the ticklish crook of her knee —
for which no apology is ever asked
of him. Behind her skin, something small
and crocus-closed and quiet waits.