Cactus
They carve these old buildings up
and fill them with fools like us
who have no choice but to hear each others
troubles and appliances trickle
through the paper thin walls.
If you lean far out of the window
risking death from the fall
you can almost imagine the sea view
that drew us here.
Most mornings the man in the basement
lubes up and hurls himself against the waves,
even in winter he’ll be there
dripping in the corridor as I pick up my mail.
Good for the circulation, he says
before he disappears for the rest of the day
into the driftwood of his tiny flat.
His is the only face to emerge
from the stereos and TV sets
that creep up the stairs
turning locks in the dark,
barking ‘til dawn tearing furniture apart.
Sleep doesn’t come easy.
some nights we just lie in bed
listening to the couple upstairs
taking bets on what will be next
to tumble past our window.
Anything goes.
Keys, books, kettles, clothes,
cornflakes in the gutters
like stale snow for weeks.
I once retrieved a cactus
lodged in the drain.
It’s broken buds bloomed
into short lived desert flowers,
the blue of some vast clear sky
the same colour as my girlfriends eyes
where all this doesn’t matter.
(Brighton)
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