He’s already in the room
when I walk in.

He can see me wringing my hands
and a grin half-bananas on his face,
as if he knows precisely
how our conversation will go,

because everyone who’s ever met him
ends up the same way,
with a tempest in their skulls
and an avalanche in their guts.

He’s ordered me a black coffee -
knows it’ll keep me up tonight.
I crumple my fists under the table,
ready for the comic-strip moment

where I overthrow the baddie,
B O S H ! right in the chops,
but it’d be like punching concrete.
I’d come off worse, of course.

I tell him to stop playing,
that it’s gone on too long.
He sees me wringing my hands again
and a guffaw ejects

from his chest,
an ugly-bird sound.
How many times I’ve turned
down an opportunity,

how many times I’ve said
I’ll think about it
only to pass and watch the night
eke away as treacle down the sink.

He’s the blister in my life.
I dismiss the drink, get up to leave,
my only remark, ‘are you leaving too?’
That disgusting smirk.

‘Don’t be silly. We’re friends.’
Outside I breathe fast though
not out of breath,
my palms raspberry-pink.

He’s already waiting
when I get home.