Slice? Yes Please

Walking home from work
sometimes feels
like buying stale bread

She asked me what it meant
I read the label
one eye studying the Hijab
the skin
the eyes
“It goes off on the 4th” I said

she nodded
and asked me what it meant

“...you’ve got until Saturday” I said
I could see her teeth were yellow at the root
I wondered briefly about Gingivitis
while she took my words in

she smiled
and asked me what it meant

I counted five days out on my fingers
“Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday... eat it before Saturday”
she laughed
took the bread
and floated effortlessly beyond the chilled cheese

I saw a security guard covered in tattoos
sitting on a wall
he was staring into his mobile phone
like it was a magic eye picture
then I assume he finally saw it
and he began to cry
maybe it wasn’t a sailboat afterall

I waited at the zebra crossing
the same crossing
where the old man got his legs crushed
underneath a double decker bus
last May
he died
the newspaper said he had been arguing
with his wife of thirty years
when he stepped out
not looking

I recognised a boy on the other side
he was working in the shoe shop last weekend
he had tried to flirt
to flutter an eyelash or two
he recognised me back
I looked away
awkward
then the green man told me to go to him
I smiled as we passed
“he wants to fuck me” I thought
of course he does
fuck someone with bread
and half the battle is won