Speaking About My Cracked Sump
I tell her about the pool
under my car each morning,
the blackness, the successive
seven drips I must always
count, watching what should be held
released. She nods. Go on. Go
on. But only if you want to.
Her encouraging smile.
I say that the oil is like
a shadow sleeping there,
but with one eye open
and I say that one day it will grow
from beneath my car and flow
down this road. Small children
will skate over it. There will be
confusions, after which the oil
will take a right at the junction,
swallow the small roundabout,
mount a kerb, soak towards
the edge of our fine promenade,
then pause by the railings, listening
to the waves below and drip,
and drip, troubling the water.
She has a question for me.
Are you the oil or the water?
I am the skating child
and I am the final drop.
Page(s) 46
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