RAIN, STEAM, AND SPEED {the painting by Turner}

Lying abed

At Mum’s
In the recent past,
With rain rattling

The old windows

And another innocent killed
By British daleks

On the television below

Joyce was camped
Downstairs by now

In what was the living room

Even with the News

I could still hear John and Harriet
Gee, from next door fucking

Working themselves to a finish
Against a loose headboard

With an accelerating
Sequence of irregular wooden knocks

Whatever was the rush?

It was raining
There was nowhere else to go

.

Steven Taylor

.