by Jon Duckett

There are gaps
Gaps in the discourse
Unspoken moments where a woman
A woman just stares
Unsure, unknowing, unaware
of implications
Unprocessing
Just the news,
Test results,
Things to tell her family

Everything is white
Everything, stark
Trapped in a colour
Can it be stark and dirty?
Searing, yet flecked
With the marks of
Is it time?
Is it tide?
What is that mix?
Beyond the white
Beyond the  dirty?

There are gaps
Blank spaces in the dialogue
Things unsaid
As if she ought to know the answers
As if she ought to know  better

She sinks
Her vessel groans
And an awful joke
An ugly   joke
About a lady doctor
That her husband
told her with glee
it comes back to her
it all falls away as she thinks
thinks about everything around her
thinks about the flecks of time worn dust
that   she    knows     should      be      clean    and      stark    and
and
and
a n d
and yet she sees staring back at her
back through the gaps
of formica

She takes       a moment .