Long Stay

A queen mattress
Swaggers across the courtyard
Wide hips bounce
And back leans
Into a shock of black hair

All that’s known of its carrier

Rank and file sparrows
Skit among flotsam books
Spines of hardbacks spike
From splayed wet shirts and jeans

All that’s known of the wearer

Excuse me please
I've just moved in
Can you show me
Where the laundry is?

A cardboard cup
Stands a gardener by a rake
Hiviz vest stirs colour
Through the steam
Milk dries in mustache
And pebbled teeth

All that’s known of the language

Coins for the cleaning
A tumble dry sea pitches
In rows of wide eyed windows
The tropical wrinkle
And dangle toes torn
From missing pet posters

All that’s left may return

This poem appears in

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