it seems the whole world 

is too busy    throwing drunk darts

over warm lager   blanket of mechanics’ banta

hiding the bladder wrack between    his teeth

of course they don’t see   this man-sized chunk 

of him falling slowly

his last superpower is    mystery      

so he throws down his glove    

quietly 

on the beer mat

underwater the reeds are soft 

but he’s just under    another effing Toyota 

you gotta laugh Matt (aka Fat Boy) says      as if that makes it better  

he’s just another failure 

if he could just be with the water 

in deep water

this good-for-nothing father    overdrawn drawn the short straw

last straw drawn and quartered 

Can nobody see? C’mon, lads, now’s your moment   

you can chaff at his last hairs falling

give him a good old   bleach-boned ribbing 

but you don’t

impossible to say out loud your lungs are filling   

Bet you notice your knuckles now

teeth marks like gills

his son fish-eyed   lisping over and over still

Where’s Daddy Daddy Daddy   who never even knew the word money   just the smell of his warm neck 

his gravestone one last joke

an anchor for the one whose body floated 

as far as the estuary

Alexandra Price is a writer, mentor and mother. She has written poetry and book reviews as well as a memoir on her experience of reading Proust’s In Search of Lost Time during maternity leave. She has also mentored young offenders, teaching poetry and creative writing. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming in The Friday Poem, Dodging the Rain, The Amphibian, and Riverstone Literary Journal.