A Poem by Arji Manuelpillai

Neighbour

It's easier to explain the way it didn't sound;
a toothbrush off the dresser drawer,
laughter through a bathroom ventilator,
than to tell you how a thud can knock
a dead aunt’s picture off the wall
and it can still be so ambiguous.
I mean the guy was a truck but
lovely and incredibly thoughtful so
when he pulled her from a Lexus
tongue along the roof of her ear
it came across ever-so-romantic.
The hopscotch up the staircase,
you couldn’t tell the difference
between a bedhead against the wall
and the back of a head repeatedly —
I really am as surprised as you are.
Who doesn't love it over a kitchen table?
The table squealing bloody murder
cutlery falling sh sh shhhhhhhhhh
one time, listening to them fucking,
all hot, aggressive and sexy as hell
I got horny, called my girl over, ripped
her clothes off, best sex of my life,
now I think back, it’s kind of horrible.

Arji Manuelpillai is a poet, performer and creative facilitator based in London. Arji’s debut pamphlet, Mutton Rolls, was published with Out-Spoken Press in 2020 and his collection, Improvised Explosive Device, was released in 2022. This highly acclaimed book was noted in The Telegraph’s Top 20 poetry books of the year, as well as in The Guardian’s best recent poetry section. It was also the Winter PBS selection and was nominated for the Derek Walcott Prize.