halfway house (Buckingham Place)
on a white plate
half a slice of white bread fried
to a crispy saturated brown
half a tomato charred with a
cold heart
then the pot
luck
of a gnarled
finger of a chipolata or
a fried egg the
pale washed out yolk or
(best of all) a
rasher of streaky
wash it down
a cup of too milky
tea
sugar in a
chipped bowl a plastic spoon
upstairs
the room shared
the sheets the towels
the chaffing the
erasing of the soul
the sense of
being burgled
someone stealing
in the ghost in the machine
woken early
morning
the farting and
the snoring
breathing out breathing
in
a freedom wreathed
in contamination
the thickening
of the skin
halfway there
halfway where the blank slate
the rubbing out
of the graffiti
the indelible
the inedible the leftovers
the rind upon a white plate
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