15: GLITTER

Phillip Hammial: Wedding

The groom is saddled up & ready to go, the best man holding the reins while the bride's father helps the equestrienne up into the saddle. Has she ever ridden before? It's the kind of question one doesn't ask. But we'll soon know. Her lace-fringed wedding dress lifted to show her well-turned ankles & there are the spurs, spiked stars that, without a moment's hesitation, as if she's done it a thousand times before, she jams into the groom's rump.

Well-wishers showering them with confetti, they're off at a gallop.

Philip Hammial's recently published sixteenth poetry collection, In the Year of Our Lord Slaughter's Children, was short-listed for the Kenneth Slessor Prize in 2004, as was his fourteenth collection, Bread, in 2001.