At Home with Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy
White lilies wilt in the window of number four
Park Road. A paper lamp’s stranded in space.
No one’s ever in. On my way home from school
I invent owners: glamourous Mr and Mrs Clark
and Percy from the postcard on our kitchen wall.
Melancholy Mrs Clark wears a dark woollen dress,
like Mum’s. Her hand on her hip, she’s angry
but won’t say why. She’s tired of trying to find
the right words. An old argument is suspended
in thick pastel air. Moody Mr Clark leans back
in his wicker chair. His legs, in flared jeans
like Dad’s, are splayed apart. His bare toes dig
into the long-haired rug. Percy the cat stares
through the open window. Sunshine perches
in the summer trees. He might hunt it.
Kate Hendry is a writer and teacher living in Edinburgh. Her first collection of poems, The Lost Original, was published by HappenStance Press 2016. Her writing has been widely published in magazines, such as Mslexia, Gutter, The North and The Rialto. www.katehendry.net