Petri Dish Poem by Roger Hudson

Our last evening together

Before her long overseas holiday

We opt for the cinema
A film, French, sexy
Vadim's "Liaisons Dangereuses"

Busy

snogging our
sensuous farewells

in the stalls oblivious we
ignore steamy on-screen
images of sex and seduction

As lights go up
Forcing us apart from our prolonged kiss
Seats in a swathe around us

Have emptied

Isolating us

Like malignant bacteria in a petri dish.


Other cinemagoers
Disturbed more by fact than fiction
Have withdrawn to seats

Further away

Furthest away

To avoid infection
From our besotted behaviour