stop or I’ll come
she said as if it was a bad thing

confused I lay my head beside hers and looked up
at a picture on her pink bedroom wall

cut out from a magazine
of a minor celebrity

tangled up in a pair of
disembodied long black legs

I said I found the picture offensive
she blamed her mother for putting
it up

I wondered why her mother
would have anything to do
with the decorating of a grown
woman’s bedroom

and thought of all
the minor celebrities who had adorned my
pink bedroom walls

none of whom had ever been
tangled up in a pair of
disembodied long black legs

not to my knowledge anyway