22
Semi-Detached
We are the spirits who muffle the cries of those who are semi-detached.
We do our best to preserve your dignity. We live inside your walls, in spaces long forgotten.
A running tap will not drown out your angry words; the raised volume on the TV will not fool anyone. They cannot mask the crockery smash, the skin slap, the glass shatter.
We seek out the places where neighbours hold glasses to walls. We cluster there to scupper those spies. But they should not despise us, for we do the same for them.
We gather together so your screams don’t penetrate through wallpaper, plasterboard, bricks and mortar. We extinguish those expletives, the ones you so rarely dare to use. We are the insulation against your private moments reaching the ears of your neighbours. And yes, we ar
