S.J. Christmass

Metronome Flows
in the psychiatric
ward of the hospital
I’ve been pulling my
mop out of the bucket
been going up and down
elevators all day
from X-Ray to Triage to
the outdoor bit to smoke
now it’s breakfast and
it’s all patients’ pyjama
drawstrings these days
in hallways & doors
they sit sitting upright
with hips flushed cheeks fidgeting
towards the speaking patient I ask
“You guys get the toilets so dirty, why?”
he then looks towards me
up ache and thinking around
“hair!” he says very his hand
and then towards the daylight
and into his days he goes back
to the ward to sleep 
later back in the bottom of
the afternoon he reaches up
teardrops as well
he picks agitation going
to say, “I don’t like your cleaning style.”
his hair and corduroy bellbottoms
just got an arse he’s pulling
unusually out of Vogue magazine
and slides further okay
he puts the cigarette and lighter
on the table 
it’s visiting time
but without an open door policy
“You want to share a smoke right?” he wallows
and then shoulders me today into
the wall all the open and back vacant 
he walks to the bookshelf
all cookery books
trade manuals
he says ‘book’ and then
takes one to read
he sits in the slumping couch
cushions as thick
fluffed like
threadbare doonas
putting a bunch of
peppermints onto
his knee
thigh
to pat what he just did
his top pocket
for the top pocket of
his jacket looks down from
his fingers and with peppermint
saliva
and with his coarse blonde
hair sticking up
he starts to lick his
palm to pat it down 
sitting see his hair is all-dry
and the speak is of “your magazines are very awful.”
he looks flicking through however
before I’m led away
“there my head is lighter on the laminated,” he asks
“a cigarette with head snatch stop sees you?” 
he looks
like one
person who
couldn’t come
and comb his hair
__________
shane jesse christmass is a perth-born, melbourne-based writer.  he edits the journal Queen Vic Knives.  he’s also a member of the band mattress grave.  he firmly believes that the future of the word, the novel, will be in synthetic telepathy.  most of his writing is archived at luparapublishing.blogspot.com.

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