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Joanna Ashwell

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Smith

Smith came to see me
through a crack in the door
and he wasn’t invited
but I came to quite like him -
until Smith started lying
and meddling with my affairs.
Now the time had come to part
but how to lose an invisible friend?

I tied a clove of garlic to my window,
bolted my door and practised yoga
but that sniping in my ears -
still refused to leave.

Smith ! Smith !
Leave me be I cried.
I hunted through the pages
of the telephone directory.
So many Smiths to call -
“Anyone lost a ‘Smith’?”
I have an unwanted Smith for hire.

I placed an ad
and the phone was hot for a while
but then I was declared quite mad.

I hear Smith on a night.
He slips between the sheets,
takes me over.
I swat his letters all night -
S and M cling to the walls.
He returns to claim them.

Today at the office
I announced myself as S
                                       M
                                           I
                                              T
                                                  H.

 

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