and then that was it, that was the end.
stray cat with a stubby tail sits under a tipped over bicycle. brown cat brown like wood. stub ends at an angle like the stubs of all these cats that come and go below the window, like their tails have all been cut off the same way.

 here in the bed giving up my structures. just swollen legs and clothes everywhere. knickers on a hanger, skirts for the ironing bag but the maid's stopped coming so why put them in. sheets for changing sometime. prickly heat powder, other powders. and the books. books with pages wrinkled from water on the bathroom floor. fruit flies around a mango skin.