Silverfish
Published on 08 - 06 - 2021
Silverfish was first published on my twitter
It was inspired by a recent experience with them in our home and a resurgence of obsessive germophobic thoughts. I wanted to continue my experiments with erratic form to convey this.
I've still not found a proper home for this poem, but I'm sure I will!
are nocturnal creatures
evil they scuttle along the brittle spines of kitchen tiles
this means you may only meet them
by chance; when you least expect it, perhaps
searching for water in the dead of night
risen from safe, weary sheets on comes the light
your hand graces antenna
your eyes drink in
disgust you can feel them all over your body
the sight of them escaping into unknown cracks
you know there might be hundreds rustling in the walls
you have googled it a thousand tiny, serrated feet
antennas twitching slinking bodies searching for something
rotten you are becoming dust for them
to eat something starchy, perhaps
your favourite books the foundations of your house
bullet holes peppering your clothes
and you fear that you cannot control
such growth in such a terrible place millions of scaly bodies you can feel
them while you sleep in rolling sweat and wake
to find them tangled in your sheets
you know that nothing is safe from their grey, scraping teeth
you have googled it you have witnessed it
you know their might
oh, and now you must clean yourself
and the counters in between the cracks
the bathroom floor the insides of the walls
you must sweep anything that they have touched
and excavate all the crevices of this terrifying earth