that you have nowhere else to be

by Jordan Barling

that you arrive with cigarettes and beer
not even a change of clothes
only a toothbrush in the cloth handbag
that you wear bandolier 
collect the Vietnamese take-away and empty the bins
chaining on the apartment balcony as I make calls
that you stay for days even though the best I can offer
is the fold out couch 
purchased for a beach house in 1986
each evening we bend the armrests back
this is what it must feel like to
realign the spine

Jordan Barling is a Melbourne-based writer. Her poetry is included in the upcoming issue of Overland.