Taking a break at 'Willum

Listless soporific holidays up North,
she, listless and unlistening,
no embrace on arrival, no hug on departure

and a spare room

her face like the land,
a geology of talk over centuries
emitted as rumble

her voice like tectonic heather
quiet and frictive

her body elven and her fawn fauntleroy boy, man of the house at 12,

and a whole bunch of work.

I never set foot outside of the property I visited,

eternal soporific holiday of tablelands,
two meals and bed in the spare room,

conversation to nothing and about some topic if she could hear my English for English,

yes good morning, yes have you had a good day,

and amidst her busy schedule hours of television and chocolate

and the birds wake me up, rooster who's caw finished like a human voice, and some bird doodle dooing till afternoon

two dogs sleep with her upstairs and her boy, who shares the same name as me, games all night and spoke to me to say goodbye,

she always said she admired my monasticism

the very thing I came up to visit for and to be defrocked from.