for Anna
Even the real estate agent had to agree
that these cockroaches were taking over the house
and organised a fumigation.
But in the days before mobile phones
there was no way to contact me
travelling back from Melbourne by bus.
So I arrived to a van and men in spacesuits
with packs of deadly chemicals on their backs.
Sent away I called Anna
from the phone booth
on Erskineville road.
Her spare room was piled with boxes of papers
but after a fourteen hour bus trip
I slept a dream filled sleep
of giant cockroaches and vengeful rats.
I woke at first light and stumbled
down the stairs to make coffee.
Just as the kettle started to whistle
there was a crash upstairs.
and organised a fumigation.
But in the days before mobile phones
there was no way to contact me
travelling back from Melbourne by bus.
So I arrived to a van and men in spacesuits
with packs of deadly chemicals on their backs.
Sent away I called Anna
from the phone booth
on Erskineville road.
Her spare room was piled with boxes of papers
but after a fourteen hour bus trip
I slept a dream filled sleep
of giant cockroaches and vengeful rats.
I woke at first light and stumbled
down the stairs to make coffee.
Just as the kettle started to whistle
there was a crash upstairs.
Coffee in hand I climbed back up
to the spare room to find a large
piece of plaster had fallen
from the ceiling onto the pillow
and a large cockroach
was staring back at me
from the rubble.
Close call!
ReplyDeleteOMG
ReplyDeleteBest political allegory on Trump's smashing the proverbial ceiling, yet, I believe. :)
ReplyDeleteif Efi tells the truth then I enthusthiastically applaud !
DeleteGood allegory, but also - true story! In the sequel, TTO was visiting when a chunk of ceiling came down in the kitchen shortly after we'd made a cup of tea. Literary near misses!
ReplyDelete