If I'm gone for a day or two
You're not to care.

Like chewed up bits of you on
Slow spinning plates,
I just don't mind old smells,
I just don't mind at all.

I'd prefer no child sounds
From that gummed hole
And no excuses
For leaving me alone with
Half the world in my bed.

Deference and indifference
Become skills and ways
To kill small pieces of
Friendly neighbourhood smiles.

A bath requires a kettle boiled
Soiled hands that don't shake
Tiny mouths that won't break open
When all of this, all of you
Aren't enough
To erase my cleanliness.