Melinda Smith #6 the glass which is keeping... after Kerry Shying #4 (and the rest)

the glass which is keeping the air out, the workers in. He thinks nab means opportune theft

(elevenses for Kerri featuring buildings and theft)

after Kerry Shying #4 we accompany ourselves by slapping at flesh 

The April air above the office blocks is guileless blue

and too warm to trust. On the corner there is a situation, cordoned off, a jumble

of witches’ hats and high viz. The building says nab. The logo is a bloodied red star. One point

is striped with absences, sharp parallel scars, twin zebra stripes of gouge, they gesture

to the window washer, white helmeted, in his slowly rising cage, who tends to the dust. He bathes

the glass which is keeping the air out, the workers in. He thinks nab means opportune theft

Inside, on the window ledge, a dusty white peace lily calls to the white helmet. Beside it a woman

with a headset and bitten nails, her roots starting to show. Her screen says nab. She tends to it

like a duty, like dusty window, it does not always obey her instructions, there are wilful red absences

starting to show. In her mind, a dream of a day with no gouges, no glass, a portal she sails through,

opportunely, on a Vespa, in a sundress, unbereaved again, unmarked, impossible to catch.