Tea for Two
Paper skin sucked tight at her temples
perm-bunched hair stuck on a stalk of neck
pale eyes peer from such depths
that the world exists at the end of tunnels.
Brittling arteries clipping blood from her brain
she steps and sways like a child learning to waltz
and hearing no music for this cryptic dance
she suddenly sits, as he does, his back to her.
Blinking slowly, forehead creasing
puzzled she is here and not kitchen bound
he salivates for food around shrunken gums
thinking he may have to hold her again
to cook his meal while her slippers tap
a tottering staccato.
Clawing grim hands under fleshless arms
he shuffles her into the hall
dropping her in the stair lift.
Button pressed he climbs wide legged after her
lifting thin limbs onto a bed
leaving her head without pillows.
The house she befriended turned enemy
a tear spreads through the delta of her cheek.
Downstairs, deliberate, absorbed,
he makes their tea.
Page(s) 14
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