John Sewell
‘How Life is Handed On’
There’s a book in there for you. He pointed
to the shelves (somewhere between ‘Bleak House’
and ‘Treat Your Duodenal Ulcer’) and left.
Once in a million years perhaps, their Somnus mattress
confabbed with the springs. Apart from which
the only coupled noise my parents made was downstairs.
No floor was thick enough to dull the sound
of - Stupid - Bitch - Get out.
I was two people - the one sneaking from the house
in hipsters and cuban heels, and the one
who never owned or wore such things.
Your hair’s a mess - Get it cut.
One day he dragged me there himself.
I saw the left side cropped and dumped across my arm,
before I pulled the sheet away and ran
(half Mod, half Rocker)
skulked the woods till it got dark.
Main evened me up. Disgusted,
he didn’t speak - for several years.
One night, when I was five or six,
I came downstairs feeling sick.
Your mother’s out. There’s nothing I can do, he said.
It’s a fact of life. If I was going to be sick,
there was the bucket.
Page(s) 57
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