As Bertie watches the sky dissolve
At Bandstand.
Everyone around him has
Love problems, maid problems,
Too-fat-legs problems
Bertie knows what threads their monstrous wantings
And pulls to unravel
And offers them all to the the mother sea.
The day before the operation
That he has paid for his whole life
Bertie says goodbye to
The three wooden flying ducks on the wall,
The picture of a bloody-sweaty Jesus
in a garden against a lurid night sky.
The P-O-P statue of the Virgin Mother
He made when he was in school
And painted himself.
He remembered the day he got the paint box
And longs for the sensation of the brushes against his face
His closed eyes
The way he and Donald used to play make-up
In the afternoons when everyone else was asleep.
The new lace runners made in China
And embroidered in Mexico
A gift from his niece in Australia.
The Bible,
But not the guilt edged Family one,
That went to his elder brother
Who needs it to prop up his sagging family.
The tea stained cracked beloved teapot
His mother used to love it.
It was Royal Doulton.
And very expensive,
And beloved.
Bertie sighs because
He will be saved.
He will not die of throat cancer.
Only now he will be barricaded by words
Instead of silence.
After the operation
Bertie walks home from the hospital
It was just down the road.
Enters the door
Smoothens the runners
Places his hand on the Bible and says a silent thank you
Mother Mary
Full of Grace
And takes down the teastained cracked beloved teapot
For a cup of tea
To cheer himself up
And bloody crying sweaty Jesus.
This was inspired last night by a friend who was telling me about an old gentleman - her old landlord - who lives alone in bustling Bandra in a quaint, pretty cottage on Hill Road.
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