Innocent

“To never never never wonder why at all”
—Van Morrison, ‘Beside You’

It was an etherea…?
But I cannot say the place.

The place was etherea…?
But I cannot say the word. I never could.

But it was there though, that place.
And it only just about existed

For a time.
And I came against her thigh.

And we giggled and hid from children
Like children.

And the sun shone on her teeth.
And I only just about existed, too, not

For a time: outside it.
And I didn’t think how to say it at all.

(A version of this poem was first published in my pamphlet L’etoile, October 2024. Redacted copy available here: https://ashleydunn.co.uk/letoile-redacted/)