Astonished
please take note this did not start last Thursday
Metal rails on either side,
I pick my way between sleepers.
The gate with its arching sign,
the dark night above it.
I think of you then, lying in a bend
of the stairs, in a pool of blood
teeth cracked on the concrete floor.
In the distance more transports
are moving: carriages creaking,
wooden whales in coastal waters,
all making it through the nets
to what lies beyond in open water.
While I can smell what’s ahead for
those of us who don’t fit – may you
live to brush our ashes from your brows.
The Fat Damsel 