Come up and see me
Sometime, May West said.
And Chimanski could
Not get the words out

Of his head, they’d buzz
Around like blow flies
In a shut up room;
And he imagined

Her upstairs in bed,
Laying there, ready
And waiting, looking
Like she did in her

Prime, as in the small
Photographs he had
Of her tucked away,
Out of his wife’s scan,

Especially the
One hidden away
In his black wallet,
Behind the dull doomed

Photo of his wife;
And sipping from his
Beer and looking up
At the white ceiling,

He listened for footsteps
In his room; the sound
Of the mattress touched,
The sound of his name

Being called, not by
Mae, but by her poor
Understudy, his
Fifteen stone wife

Fay whom he signed and
Contracted for life.