11HASTA LA VISTA

Things were fatal but not urgent.

We used more make-up and less speed.

We saw the hectic colour on one side

and the blank space on the other.

What went up came down then drilled its way

metres deep into the earth. Under

the turned table we learned to live

on our own chewing gum

while unfamiliar implements played

dinner music above our heads.

We adapted — it was what we knew

how to do — but the sugar cubes kept

getting smaller. Whereas before

we had been known by name,

now we only crept to the watering holes

under cover of darkness, then sat

with chins on our knees and waited while

the new customers declined our terms

in favour of their own impenetrable

argot. Sign met size and came off

second best, bedding down with lice

and livestock in the basement of

the air we used to own. While

they were busy ransacking

the drawers there was still time to rue

our civilised discontents, but now

the sudden silence impends overthrow.

We stare at one another, suspended

in the pause before the shouting

12and splintering Hollywood has, as it

turns out, so well prepared us for,

the breathless interval before our new

lives, hat and coatless in the snow.