157: Cambridge Companions

Time of Our Lives plays on the Bluetooth speaker, softly

so they don't wake the neighbours as they crawl into the single bed

an hour before midnight.

Her book, a reliable Cambridge Companion, rests in her hands

and the bronze-rimmed glasses have settled

at the tip of her nose.

The bedside lamp bathes her in gold, glittering

in her glasses, in the golden ring on her thumb,

and catches in her eyebrows as she frowns

at a single line about Modernist poets —

Yeats or Auden or Eliot or someone of that sort —

and he stretches out between her body and the wall,

his head on her pillow, tucked against her side,

an arm across her waist, a warm chest.

The music hums and he watches, mesmerised

by the shadow of the glasses on her cheeks,

as she turns page after page, until his eyes burn with tiredness,

but the brush of her fingers keeps him awake.

An hour passes, perhaps two.

She reaches the end of the chapter and, like a kiss

to the corner of his mouth, a promise

of more, marks the page and sets the book aside.

Pauses the music. Turns off the light.

Falls asleep alone.

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Note: Time of Our Lives is a reference to Time of Our Lives, performed by Tyrone Wells. Released Mar 2, 2010. Available on Spotify.

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Written by: Katrine Hjulstad

Instagram: @katrinehjulstad

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Publisher's note: Please note that all poetry published with Eudaemonia Records has been seen by our editors, and that the editors have suggested revisions where they see fit, but we believe that it is ultimately the writer's decision to accept or reject any suggestions and take no responsibility for which suggestions they accept or reject.