# Help me identify a poem.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-poem/100017>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 25, 2002, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-poem/100017 "2002-03-25T16:01:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-poem/100017/1 "2002-03-25T16:01:24Z")

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About 3 or 4 years ago I read an really good poem in the UK Independent (pre-online version). It was about losing one’s virginity. I meant to clip it, but lost the paper. I later learned that this poem had won the Independent poetry competition for that year.

I’ve googled like mad, checked Amazon, emailed the newspaper about it, but drawn a blank. I don’t know the poet, but I can remember a few lines:

\*\*“I’m scared” she said […] frightened  
So I covered her mouth with my own,  
And we lay in the bed as the storm-sky brightened  
And stood at our heads like a stone.

[…]  
Each to the other,  
[…] like prisoners over a bridge  
[…]

[…]  
[…]  
The night we lay down on the flag of surrender  
And woke on the flag of Japan.\*\*

Any ideas? It’s been driving me crazy for years.