Perhaps the inguinal canal was weakened
\nby the piano we hauled down three flights
\nwith a chime and a plink, out to the lorry
\nwhere we rolled and smoked a spliff.
\nOr compromised by those concrete slabs
\nI lifted and laid with dad. Or charcoal bags,
\nhoisted and hefted into the van, delivered
\nto the kebab shops of North London.
\nOr the enormous man who slumped at my feet,
\nslung by an arm and leg onto the bed with help
\nfrom a hospital porter. I have a wedge of mesh
\nin my groin, angling for attention with its sharp dig,
\nits deep heat niggle. It is sure to outlast me with its
\nperfect memory, its unyielding adherence to form. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Above the carriageway
\na black plastic sheet glides like a ray,
\nbecomes for a blink, the sun\u2019s eyelid. <\/p>\n
For a mile or more, cellophane
\ntwists in hard-shoulder turbulence,
\nsnags roadside hawthorn. I\u2019m closing in <\/p>\n
on this blinding vision; a white flatbed
\nwith a cargo of sun-blazed ribbons,
\ngossamer shreds lost in slipstream, <\/p>\n
a polymer shoal, swimming
\nin the trees, each sheer or tinted piece
\nsure to last millennium. The driver <\/p>\n
is not Aruna, charioteer of the sun
\nbut a red bearded twenty-something
\nwith his foot to the floor; <\/p>\n
he\u2019s deaf to my horn, blind
\nto my gestures, elbow on the sill
\nas his load becomes light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hernia Perhaps the inguinal canal was weakened by the piano we hauled down three flights with a chime and a plink, out to the lorry where we rolled and smoked a spliff. Or compromised by those concrete slabs I lifted and laid with dad. Or charcoal bags, hoisted and hefted into the van, delivered to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[379,380],"tags":[388],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n