White daisies, red vase, yellow wall.

Sunlight in airshaft

The cooing of pigeons on sooty window sill.

Gray to black.

Bananas and sour cream.

Corn flakes and milk.

Three-minute soft boiled eggs.

Death, the unblinking eye, watches over the kitchen table.

Blue veins, red hands

Put the kettle up,

The ever-comforting kettle.

The tapping of bony fingers.

The sniffling of runny noses.

The blink of weary eyes.

In the throat: dry desperation.

In the throat: rasp.

In the throat: hack

In the throat: words that won’t come out.

What is the comfort in this:

This hissing radiator,

This porcelain stove,

This bold-faced clock on the wall,

This smell of coffee?

This/not this.

To be and to be something else, something more,

Many things other?