Vivarium Area

You are in the car reception
Waiting for your car to be serviced
 Your crutch is on the carpet tile covered floor
Beside you
You glimpse its large grey rubber end on the taupe texture of the tiles
Stout and reassuring
Is it you or the car that is being treated you wonder
The car is having the oil changed
It costs an arm and leg
You dislocated your ankle on holiday
It felt like a chicken bone when you carve the Sunday dinner
Schlplop it went as it slid back into place
Like a miracle
The car that caused your fall then drove off
It didn’t hit you
Just threw you off balance
You can bet they didn’t fancy that litigious look in your eye
As you lay flat on the tarmac
Then rose like the dying Gaul
To stare in disbelief at the new angle of your ankle
Then that schplop as it slid back
And here you are now back in England
Waiting in a car garage for your car
Your crutch at your side
Mosquito bites on your legs
Soaring to strange heights of irritability
Pulp on the in-house music system
Someone here likes indie
Indie music you think
Don’t you make indie music?
Not long till your car is ready though.
And you can go back to your sons
The sons who carried you home after you fall
Stay calm your son advised
It was like an update on that Rolf Harris song
Is he okay to mention?
Or is that memory now off limits
It used to make you cry
At least you didn’t sing Jake the Peg on Stars in their Eyes
You think
Like Jarvis
The indie singer who used to come to your gigs


The elderly lady opposite
Across the taupe carpet tiles
Has swollen ankles
The kind yours reminds you of
But then you also see she has a tattoo on her ankle
An elderly lady with a tattooed ankle you think
Trying not to stare now
She has rose tinted spectacles though
perhaps you look better from where she is?
The indie music is growing tinier
The tiled ceiling stretches off above you
Into auto heaven eternity
And the sun heats the plate glass cube
Where you the lizard man
Sit breathing in the vivarium

Trying not to stare
Like the lizard you saw on the deck
Back by the pool
You had gotten very close
Saw the miniature suckers on its feet
Saw its heart rapidly beat
Looked him in the eye
As he shuddered
Like a lucky bag toy
Came back the next day too

To see you off on your last day.

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