I left a skull on my desk
The guy from upstairs lent me a human skull.
He put it on the dining table of all places.
He said he’d come back after dinner, then went upstairs.
I moved it to my bedroom. I tried to keep the jaw steady
so the teeth didn’t scrape. Pacing it on my desk
I got a text, left, drank, come back. I get in bed,
turn the bedside lamp off and look down:
a human skull. I start feeling the back of my neck.
That used to be inside someone. One of those
is in my body and one day it won’t be. Right,
do I sleep downstairs? No, the cats will get in.
Then they will have full reign of the skull.
They’ll bat it off the desk for sure.
I saw them do it with a piggy bank. There’s nothing to say
the skull will smash like ceramics but I’m not risking
fishing bits of him out from under the wardrobe.
No, I have to stay here, and sleep, eventually.