Mannequins

If we don’t move, no one will

see us. The air-con will help us

to lean forward, help us to make

headway. Regular news updates

from dozens of flat screens

could save us from our musing as

blow-dryer music in the hi-fi section

warms the backs of our necks.

If we stand anaesthetised by the

cleaning lady’s spray gun,

dressed in the latest, we might blend in,

and late at night, when we’re blind,

security guards will make love to us,

though only with their torches.

In the corners of the ceiling, next

to the cameras, gleaming silver vents

will inhale our carbon dioxide, while

the vents along the skirting boards

exhale, to keep it circulating, this

air we breathe on condition.

(published in FourW, 2011)