I see two girls, now women, who smile at others
Never at me
Who sour with life’s quick cherry passing
Go off like milk in my refrigerator door
One drip in my tea, no guests to pour out for.
They reverberate like echoes in the stillness of my parlour.
This is a neighbourhood of cats, no barking
No worries about leaving us alone all day
Often all night too
In hungry expectation.
They bring up corpses and track invitations
In the name of reciprocity
Accountancy, curation, careful recitation of moments and pictures
Togetherness invited
Competition launched, jaws that bite
Claws that snatch
Rewrite my story, meekness a grievous flaw,
Passivity, worse – stupidity,
Made to pay,
Trampled to shame
With a flick of a finger.
