A Clean White Shroud
For Geoff Stevens
Smoking still makes me dizzy.
My mind wanders when I boil soup.
Each pint
of dark ale, raised: ‘Rage!’
See-through people play
with broken poems
on the other side, banging
their fists like cocaine hearts.
I hear rising chords,
miniature
bells anticipate your big splash.
The slam of a heavy door.
A voice behind the curtain
asking for a towel:
a clean
white shroud worthy of a saint
as our bathroom radio
stutters between stations
and my family’s worried faces
beg me to pass them
things I cannot see.
Bobby Parker was born in 1982. He lives in Kidderminster, England. His most recent collections are Ghost Town Music and Comberton (knivesforksandspoonspress), Digging for Toys and the limited edition chapbook Building Murder with a Smile.