(Poetry selected by Luke Wright, Nasty Little Press)
On our wedding day I say to my bride
“We will be together for ten years, max.”
She shrugs and says
“It’s not like in our parents’ day.”
and we laugh. I pick confetti from her hair,
adjust her veil. I want her to look perfect
for the photographs.
I tell her that if we have children
I will be an inattentive father.
On more than one occasion
I will forget to collect our son from football practice
and as he stands in the phone-box
outside the school gate
I will be in the bath
my head submerged under bubbles.
“That’s okay,” my bride says to me,
“Our children will tolerate these things.”
The photographer calls our names.
We turn and smile,
the church behind us in glorious sunshine,
my hand on the shoulder
of a bridesmaid.
John Osborne's Radio Head was Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and his second book, The Newsagent’s Window, is forthcoming in May from Simon & Schuster. Nasty Little Press published his first poetry pamphlet, What if Men Burst in Wearing Balaclavas?, in February 2010.