New Year Office Chitchat     How was your Christmas? he asks at the water cooler

and, as the machine gurgles, she thinks about

the bloodstained rug   and the silent scraping of the spade  

in the garden at midnight  and the wash wash washing

of her hands, and the dreams,
 those endless dreams  which haunt the night-time 

and smudge their thumbprints on the day to come,

and she replies Super, thanks. Yours? 

Brian Bilston