Behind Glass Doors

A poem written in a hospital in Indonesia

Clinic cat roams the hall
No soap at all
There’s two men in
Yellow welly translation
From Asian to Asian
My feet dangle over the rubber bed
This rusty Caucasian
With a bladder infection

My skin smells like my nan’s old place
When I rest my arm across my face
I see the carpet on her stairs
Patterning itself in the mustard years
You know
Dogtooth browns amongst vomit flowers

However
I do remember
In my toddler fug
Cottons from Malaysia
Singapore ladies
Chinese china
and
A clock from Australia

Boomerangs and Castanets
Gemstone bonsai
Pot pourried antipodes
Semi detached
Inside
A Black Country house

From behind glass doors
This little girl would dream of
Those distant shores
Those exotic tropics

Almost 30 years ago
Now

In that
Pebble dashed
Cul-de-sac
Horses galloped through my grandfather’s heart
Little flutters
Marked in newspapers by jockey’s blazers
And I would cheer too
Hollering for something
I never knew

The doctor asks my name
L-u-c-y
From England, yes
Actually
I was just there
30 years ago
Now
A rusty Caucasian

My cottons will be folded one day
For a child to make up stories
From behind glass doors

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