That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first in your head, and then you… - Margaret Atwood

That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before.

Because you are never here
but always there, I forget
not you but what you look like

You drift down the street
in the rain, your face
dissolving, changing shape, the colours
running together

My walls absorb
you, breathe you forth
again, you resume
yourself, I do not recognize you

You rest on the bed
watching me watching
you, we will never know
each other any better
than we do now

The sitting room is subdued, symmetrical; it’s one of the shapes money takes when it freezes.

Roughing it builds a boy's character, but only certain kinds of roughing it.