MY FIRST ORGY
I attended my first orgy, off the
Caledonian Road. It was all I
thought it would be (bar the parts
where it was not). My suit wasn’t
on for long and the smell changed
at the rates of knots. Limbs opening
and moving and being passed around
as bottles of Fanta sat in the corner
getting flat.
The curtains were closed
and some people complained, wanting
to show the outside world what fun
could be had when, ironically, closing
the shades.
We watched her fuck him and him fuck
her and them fuck her and them fuck him
and them fuck them before we fucked us
all and before we had to put on our coats to
leave. This poem was written before my
first orgy, but it still remains the same
and it happened just as I thought it would
(bar the parts where it did not).
CALLER, I’M HERE
The game is wide and I’m
spread too thin, too thin
to add another player. This
phone is bugged (you can
tell) and I feel sorry for who
has been sentenced to
listen. What crime did they
commit to face the horror of
so much everyday? There
ain’t been any new secrets
for a year or four and no one
cares about the old. Tears come
out of your eyes when your
boss is passing and when they’ve
gone you blow your nose and
lament all this wasted time. I
wish I could lie to you and say
something monumental has
happened. But I’d be a liar
who’d be sentenced, before the
lie begins. All I can tell you is,
“Caller, I’m here. Stick around.
Something may change.”
***
CHRIS SIMPSON grew up in Bracknell and Slough. He has worked as a waiter, a projectionist, a shoe salesman, an attendant in an amusement arcade, hiring out construction and demolition tools, a pasty seller, a caretaker for a primary school, a teaching assistant and a tutor. He was a collaborator on a sketch show and has performed as a stand-up comedian. In 2021 he was published alongside Kit de Waal, Kerry Hudson, Philip Ridley and twenty five other writers in MainStream from Inkandescent Publishers. In 2018 he was an awardee of the inaugural Spread The Word’s London Writers Award.
***
image: MM Kaufman
Rejection Letters 