Blade

Some vegetables resist
more vigorously
than others.

To vary things,
she plays at cutting
herringbones and ovals,

teasing the skin
with her point before
penetrating the heart,

pictures a fingertip
nestling among peelings
on the spattered board,

and, for the luxury
of granting him
a reprieve perhaps,

imagines stepping
to where her husband sits
absorbed,

and steering the knife
quite casually
into his side,

curious to see
his look of surprise, feel
how smoothly a blade can slide.

(from Birth of the Owl Butterflies, Picador, 1997)