in a cheap suit
under bare electric bulbs
on floor boards
that have supported so
many cheap weddings
with proud and drunken parents
dancing to dated pop songs

he takes off his jacket
and undoes his tie

both drop to the floor
and he surveys the room

plastic bottles of stale water
cans of long dead beer
echoing fading memories
of dubious nights

he unfastens his trousers
pulls them off and
his socks

dirty yellow Y fronts
at the top of skinny
white legs

outside miserable
thin grey rain
pisses down

vest shirt and underpants
peeled. discarded

Harsh

skin creased & stained
too many stories
for a single canvas

naked under fluorescent lights
honest bare
stripped true

waiting for a day
he can’t imagine
will come

Naked