Our Anniversary: an oyster bar Copyright © Sally Warrell 2010

In the moment of swallowing
Sliding gelatinously over the throat
Leaving a trace of the elusive taste
Neutral, indefinable
The oyster is gone
Becomes yesterday’s oyster.

I photograph you mid slurp
Freeze the moment, stop time.

The oyster man splits open more oysters.
Another couple shuffles in under the tarpaulin
And huddles from the spooling rain.
The oyster woman slicks her hands down her apron
And takes another order.

In our mind’s eye
The pale gleam of a briny pearl
Never formed
23 years of prising ourselves apart.