Change can be as simple as pulling an in-dwelling catheter from your own chest. Many years in situ, it has every day dripped poison into your circulation. Give it a gentle tug: the surface fixation is less strong than you may suppose.
There may be a little bleeding initially but thereafter it will glide free in a single, smooth exit. You should dispose of this plastic carefully; it is clinical waste and cannot be recycled. To eliminate any risk of infection, best to incinerate.
viii. 2022
With eyes wide shut, I saw
that unchanged box: the crown above
a concrete base, cast-iron sides
and dome of currant red.
Four fingers crooked to prise ajar
its glazed, teak-heavy door.
Inside, the glass is uglified.
NF stickers clash with brazen ‘massage’ ads -
hate meets hanky-panky.
I unhook the hard black handset,
unwind its cable, tightly coiled.
Paused at the dialling tone
my head fills with excuses,
speaks to those ghosts of lost entanglement.
The nagging hum of piss,
patting pockets down for 10p pieces
before I get cut off.
Outside a geezer, glaring, checks his watch.
Headstrong nights had ambition then.
Listening for things to come
my shape became an ear.
But round the bend and out of sight,
in dreams I hear just nameless cars
pass by as streams of light.
viii. 2022
