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Janet Loverseed

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Open Verdict

When family and friends and warden
say her double bed will fill the room
and make jokes about why she’s brought it
and she says she likes space to stretch in
and the best sleep’s diagonal,
they humour her lazily, not saying
that if she falls out she won’t reach
the alarm cord, but that she shall have her way
and slanting sleep indeed brings lovely dreams
and they too like their space to lie in.

And when one night she does fall out
and it’s so cold she’ll not last till day
and she can’t reach the cord or even find
the strength to pull the blankets down to warm her,
she doesn’t blame her family
or friends or the warden or herself
for her numbed extremities,
her final gasping of the icy air,
and she’s never believed in god. If she had
she wouldn’t have blamed him either.

 

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