Embedded Files
The Excursion
‘The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn.’
– from Fear of Flying, Erica Jong, Panther Books, 1976.
Top deck. Loving the thwack
of branches on a wide bus window,
severed leaves in the lanes.
Art teacher’s arms leaning over
the cool rail of the seat, asking me
how I knew Erica Jong. How did we
get on to Erica Jong? The book’s
yellow spine, eye level at home.
Girls beside me disappear for a minute
from my peripheral view. I didn’t say
the zipless fuck is the purest thing there is.
Rarer than the unicorn. I didn’t look
at his swept back blonde hair and say that.
His arms, leaning over the cool rail of the seat.
Bamber
You, in the knot of journalists
close enough to see him climb
into the long black car. You,
at the church and crematorium,
symphony of camera shutter.
Later, telling my mother
what you noticed about his
behaviour. Me, overhearing this
at teatime. Shotgun, evil, massacre.
My grandma’s farmhouse, only
six miles north, on a B road.
Your office awash with his face,
dead sister in bikini. Essex Chronicle,
Daily Mirror, Daily Mail. The Sun’s
inky rub on everything. You, home late,
touching the heads of your own fair sons.
She is painted gold
I buy Esquire,
Blu-Tack Kate Moss
to my wall
and wake before lectures
to her slim back turned,
trace of nipple shining.
No breakfast.
Women’s Studies.
A4 feint and margin punched.
Biro, Faludi,
lunch of spearmint gum.
Rebecca Goss is the author of four poetry collections, and two pamphlets. Her latest collection, Latch, was published with Carcanet in 2023.
Copyright © 2026 by Rebecca Goss, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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