Label

I hide the name label
On my drink
When I go out
Out
But not
You know
They have labelled everything
My past
My future
My self
Which is real
But not
Me photographed
Against the white wall
In case
I run
You know
As if the pattern
On my face
Needs duplication
A label
As if when they find me
(As they always do)
They will quibble
Is that her
That is in the pattern too
Grab me
Take me back to the place
Which drives me berserk
You know
I try to say through thick powder lips
That I would not run if I was not chased
Like rabbit down the hole
I take a copy of my duplicate face
Drowned out by the
White wall
White walled
I am not going home
You know
There is no place to run
Just this endless wait
For nothing
It took two weeks for the banana skin to turn black
Like dead skin waiting to be cut off
Skin is easy to remove
These labels are heavy as nothing
Unmoveable
I trace them back
To the blue plastic glove in the sink
The powder
Waiting in my slippers
Not ruby
But magic enough to take me home

How I wish that it wouldn’t have been
How I wish that it would have been

How brave you were to chase your fine line
To three last lines
How brave you were to say enough
How brave you were to love me

The rats scurry in the raspberry bush
Beside the Multi-Storey.