swearing he hates this world
and every cell in it, he half collapses
in front of a woodpile, fingertips
coated with gelatin kerosene,
she drags his twice her size away
by fraying shoes from white cigarette lighters
sinking in black mud

the cool of her blaze is kept
under pink silk
sex pyjamas, old rope clotheslines
keep copies of the same, flapping
in a breeze from ancient childhoods