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Rhys Owain Williams
  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Writing
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Non-Fiction
  • Media
    • Author Bios
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Interviews
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    • Readings
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Rhys Owain Williams

GHAZAL

Outside the front door of a mid-terrace house
wedding photos spill from a split black bag.

In summer, we enjoy a barbecue on the beach
but the sausages dropped on the sand go uneaten.

The next day, despite the hours between us,
my fingers still cling to your faint perfume.

Although I find her number in a charity shop shirt,
I do not phone to see if she was unwanted too.

Despite what Hollywood would have you think,
nobody makes love in slow motion.

Morning – a dried slug curled up on the carpet
brought through the house with last night’s bins.
​
To feel the sting of aftershave on his freshly-cut jaw,
the felled soldier would kill many, many times more.
Picture
Published in That Lone Ship  (2018)
Available to buy from Parthian Books

You can read a little about the ghazal form here
Ⓒ Rhys Owain Williams 2008–2022
Picture
That lone ship on the horizon
​arriving or leaving?