In Isolation

[Knot]

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Hi Penned.

Thanks for the clarification (and for not mentioning my confusing delirium with boredom ) The change in title helps (a lot), but wondered if there was any way to get 'teenager' and 'her mother stays with her' into the piece (more explicitly) - just for us slow of comprehending types.

as a for instance

Carmen broods like tea brews,

Stewing through the elastic days

fifteen stretching further away

Her mother - in the bed they've made

up for her plum lipstick and plastic shoes,

- always takes time to dress for church on zoom,

and to reassure the neighbours.

They both know one month in one room

Is too long. She whispers to her marrow

wake up

And she thinks she can hear her cells moving

under her skin like London in summer.

When the nurses come she pretends to sleep,

Fearing small talk as dull as sparrows feathers.

Carmen imagining a bee trapped in a jam jar,

pressing its wings to the side of the glass.

(I think you lose quite a lot changing the mother into a bee)

Unveiling the vertical blind like a secret,

(can one unveil a blind? The one's I remember from my last stay in hospital had those

fiddly toggles and cords that seemed to confuse everyone, regularly. )

she watches a tree behind the car park

turn toward the Autumn.

Best, Knot

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