CARLA COMES HOME
it was a sinister day when carla decided to come
home/ she told them she had journeyed across the
black depths of the river styx/ in order to reach
the front door of the house/
the house where she
lived/ the house which she had fled from five weeks
before/ & how now she twitched like a corpse as
the house's atmosphere corrupted her/
carla took a
deep tired breath/ she entered the front door of
her apocalypse/ the hallway cold & gripping her/
there was no one left to accompany her/
she stepped
into a dark mirror from which she thought she had
escaped/ but instead she came face to face with the
house/ immediately her skin became darker/
she smelt
the demons living in the furniture/ demons have a
certain odour/ inky black & salty like deep sea
water/ yet the atmosphere in which they linger is
huge & dry with their laughter/
carla hadn't come
home in a hurry/ she wished her family was there
to help her/ but they only seemed to smother her/
family demons in the family furniture/
in the living
room she said/ alright i've come home/ you should be
dead/ the demons shrieked/ the bedroom door creaked
to the left/ but carla said/ this is my house/ the
spell you cast has been broken/
carla stood her
ground before the huge house demon/ suddenly she
felt forsaken/ in the bedroom doorway stood her
lover/ christopher the black magician/ his oily
black hair swept over his forehead/
his psychic eye
covered in hair/ he had grown sideburns & a goatee
beard/ i am magician, he was saying to her/ i will
perform magic/ how romantic she thought/ keeping her
distance from him/ she had been tricked before/
he performed the magic/ see one flat hand, he said/
now see it become a fist/ see this other flat hand,
he said/ now see it become another fist/ now you
see carla's well formed face/ now you don't/
suddenly he jumped out from the doorway/ pursuing
arla down the hallway/ twelve coloured hoops
balanced on his shoulders/ a black cube dropped
from his cloak/ onto the pathway leading from the
house/ & its lid fell off exuding laughter/ rabbits,
coloured scarves & white doves/
carla rushed out
onto the street/ slamming shut the gate of the apocalypse
behind her/ she left the madness which she had faced/
she left the magician back in the mirror from which
she had escaped/ she left the pair of frustrated
fists twitching by the front gate/
he does not love
me for who i am/ she thought/ this is not the dream
house i dreamt of at all/ carla had been running
away for most of her life & had never looked to see
who was chasing her/ she had never seen a man so
full of hatred & bad tricks before/
once she had
found out that it was her lover the magician/ she
reached in & pulled herself out of his black house/
put on her best black hat/ her neat black expression
& went bounding off down the street to bliss with
all the white rabbits |
