My health
couldn’t be bothered to come in today.
It made excuses about traffic and needing
to get its son to childcare and not being
able to find any breakfast and sweating
through every item of clothing it owns
during the death of the night
and I want to listen, to understand, to give it
space let it do what it needs and trust, hope,
it remembers all I have given it.

© Carl Burkitt 2023