i waited behind the toilet door/ the one with the
lock on it/ children hide behind toilet doors in
the western suburbs/ my mother locked herself
in the bathroom to get away from my father/ she
didn't leave the house or file for a divorce/ instead
she lay down on the cold tiles & wrapped herself
up in the dusty powder of the purple bath mat/ &
she grew hard inside it/ then there was gilbert
the german kid across the road/ my first playmate/
he wouldn't play skipping with me one day so i
told his parents that he stole five cents from my
telephone money box/ six hours later gilbert
was still locked in the toilet without food or
water/ i was on the outside speaking under the
crack/ like we had hidden around the brick
corners of houses speaking through the pool
hose/ gilbert said 'i'm not allowed out'/ i felt
awful/ gilbert stayed locked in the toilet for a
day & a night/ but i never felt a thing when my
turn came/ the wood splintered on the toilet door/
pounding through in slow seconds/ my father on
the outside getting in/ my brother dale on the
outside with him/ 'she didn't mean to dad she
didn't mean to'/ but this time he was killing me
