Radiation Poem by Dorothy Featherstone Porter

When
pushing back strands
of her hair straying
around her dangerous
quick-quipping mouth

kissing her
feeling her mouth open
like an anemone
under mine

when I flow to her
fast and shallow
like a channel
from a deep lagoon
frothing across to the sea

I have her intense attention.

It's only afterwards
wearily driving home
I feel my skin
flake away
in a leprous snowfall

as if I've strayed
and played
in Jupiter's radiation belt.