what happens in your dream she asks

me on a day at a time i do not know

and i cannot speak i am just terrified,

terrified of him, the man from my past who

is now stood in the corner of the room

fading into the shadow of the filing cabinet

like a detuned radio and he stinks, oh god

he stinks like a summers waste bin and again

she asks me what is wrong  and i turn to her

and try to say ‘can you not see him’ but

before i can get the words out he dances

towards me, arms floating and flailing and

there is this noise, like an air raid siren,

and it is coming from his mouth,

his mouth is gaping and expanding

as worms rise from his throat and fall

to the floor where they writhe and wretch

and all that escapes my feeble, frozen

throat is a single sound, a fragile and

fractured cry for help.