Untimely #19 - Gastrology

Striplight whale belly of childhood earache –

Lino lolling like a cold tongue

unfeeling down trolleyed corridors.

Mum: unspooling

past slits of other people’s sickness.

Mum’s hand our feet her foot

up steps and along and under

an echo of signs.

Us: double doors one end

White walls

tapering

vanishing.

Me: trawling – not knowing

what is

food

medicine

poison?

Not knowing

until now

how unknowing

I was then.

You: still

bed bound

ill

behind the curtain

paper skinny.

(They say, don’t they, that it’s the tubes, usually,

that shock you when you first see your dad

like that.

For me, it was the contrast to Christmas.)

And you:

still

the other

end

dad