Is

Is

I was just thinking he says

As he lies in his adjustable bed

My beautiful home in Euxton

And it comes to this.

I remind him the other homes

All stank of stale piss

And he recalls as a county heating engineer

The amount of homes that stank of this.

I need a new bed he said

This isn't big enough.

My feet touch the bedstead.

I tell him that as his muscles waste

He has no friction so slips

To the bottom, and has no strength

To haul himself back up.

They keep putting my bed controller

Beyond reach so I can't flatten

the mattress. I tell his key worker

To make a note in his file

That the bed controller must

Hang from the middle of the bed

Not beyond his reach at top and bottom.

They've put a duvet on my bed, again.

I want sheets I can peel off.

Biju, his key worker replaces the plastic

Tubes stuck up my dad's nose.

And says "If he's not getting oxygen

In his lungs he gets cold."

"And its come to this. Pass

Me my bottle", my dad says

As he rips off the duvet,

Delves into his adult Pampers

And inserts his dick into the bottle.

Paul Brookes

Paul Brookes is a shop asst. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018),Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018) Forthcoming Stubborn Sod, (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He edits The Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.