Gillian Swain # 4 - Skin like slippery ideas

The house is quiet

humans and dogs sleep  

mostly

late night tidier

moves in grime with 

Tom Waits egging her on

tap drips on the Pollock of plates in the sink

child sneezes upstairs in a bed that really

needs the sheets changed

a new tide of dust

Insomnia the poet

keeps scribble for company

cricket imitates spider

as it plays her ankle hair

tickles tired skin like slippery ideas

it's late

words slide off the bed

lost in the crumple

of clothes on the floor.