Without even thinking
he reached out his TV tray hands
and gave me everything:
a gravel driveway forehead,
a prawn cocktail tongue,
the tough tissue clump
on my right ear but not my left,
creaky floorboard feet,
a hairline in the shape of
an M for My hair is receding,
a pigeon chest, draft excluder arms,
skin too thin for the sun
but thicker than I sometimes remember.

© Carl Burkitt 2021