Inside the Dryer

This daughter applies her lip gloss
in the waiting room.
'Bought this and thought of you'
her mother says, during a seaside trip.
The doctor talks, she reapplies
the cherry flavoured glue.
Her mouth begins to burn.
'You can see him now
but you can always leave.'
The nurse ushers the family through,
perched like crows around the bed.
She gets to sit
next to his bag of waste.
The nurses brush his teeth
and move her father.
Swollen face,
not the man she knows.
Whose betting slips are always tied up
with a rubber band,
credit cards bursting from their
plastic bulge,
over his jacket pocket,
next to his pens.
He twitches in his sleep,
adjusts his signet ring,
the nurses joke.
And when it's time to leave, she plants
a kiss upon his cheek.
One afternoon her mother holds her close,
'I have this daughter
with a broken heart,
a son who sticks his head
inside the tumble dryer
for comedy effect.'
Downstairs
the winning horse
crosses the line,
and on the stairs
the ghost of a life still to live,
cheers.