rattled the schoolboy box joint of his/tory
cells of the phone multiplied in his ear
slipped through the gap & nobody heard
his shout, first word thought was the longest
he knew —
king stein, kidneys shrinking to shallots
sleep talking — o you — side-splitting tumour
& progressing to the beak spoon slim as a bird’s bone
feeding, soup-starved to the nostril’s mouth
back to novel-cum-manual, slapping
the face of each page, quick, for her
one eye on the window’s black mirror
for the panning machete of car light
making an epiphany of white
heralding lady heroine’s arrival
in origami bookmark collars
threating blue flames at the first point of exhalation, movement