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Half-life For Rent
by A. Lawrence Bradshaw 



I don’t leave home
to see the sun.
It beats on the roof
forever
like time,
like a drum

And Mary’s in India,
stoned, with you
while I have pale sand
in my shoes, sifting out
of long-tarnished eyelets
grain by solitary grain,
rubbing its way
to reminders of you

It must be her
who makes you feel
like there’s a big white flag
with coloured pennants
flying in the carnival
of your heart.
Instead of a half-life for rent,
you snapped her up, I guess

I never said good bye.
My lips
formed inaudible
questions: Will I see you
when you’re 40
or is that it?
Too afraid
of your replies
I wait in the house
an empty shell, knowing
that this land is mine,
and I don’t want it

 
(A found poem created using song titles from Dido’s album, ‘life for rent’)


 

 


 







 

 

 

Anne Lawrence Bradshaw graduated with a First in English Literature in 2013, returning to study after a twenty year hiatus. Her work has been recently published in Orbis, Acumen, and Artemis (UK literary magazines) and several ezines. She is Writer Liaison with E&GJ Little Press and lives in Northumbria, the North of England, with her husband and 2.4 children. Tweet her @shrewdbanana