The Table
We are sitting at TABLE.
Table is very important you understand –
For a family that is.
Table has all the right knives and forks.
It has all the correct glasses.
Table has manners.
Into this ‘table’ comes a little kid.
He is about three.
Mother is on the left.
Next to her is her eldest son.
He is a shattered person.
Daughter is successful.
She is like Mum –
Who is ‘successful’.
The daughter is an attractive girl.
Mum has ‘made it’ –
So everything Mum says goes.
Husband, across the way,
Is shut out.
HE is not even at the table.
But is standing by the
Outside door,
Not allowed at table,
And barely existing.
His task was to fuck her
For her to have a baby.
This is the woman.
So into this came the four year old.
With all this business going on.
The mother doesn’t say anything.
She doesn’t have to.
She’s got the daughter trained.
So well trained she’s running
Hither and thither.
She leaps up –
It could be my own daughter
And her mother –
And says ‘Caleb’ – the child –
‘You either sit here and eat this or -‘
I don’t know what the alternatives were.
don’t think there were any.
As a feeling creature
This small boy was given no options.
The elder son, Eddie,
Is sitting there squirming.
He has already been through this mill,
This degradation.
He groans – ugh ughhh.
But he doesn’t step out of it.
He hasn’t earned his own living,
So he can’t step out of it and say,
‘Fuck you, you cunts’.
He can’t, he is still at home,
And mum is still keeping him.
So he’s got to be careful.
He says under his breath,
‘I’ve got to be careful
Of this dangerous bitch.
Ugh Ugghh –
Give Caleb space.’
And I sit there,
Trying to be polite.
I say to myself,
‘Be polite Josh.
This woman has already,
In front of my wife,
Asked me to give her a baby.
It felt a bit like rape;
Like she was trying to devour me –
Like I was a titbit.
But I talked with the boy,
Pointing out the scene –
Father at the door –
Baby being trained.
The ball was set rolling.
‘Thank you! Thank you!’ he said.
‘You dominant bitch,
You’ve got me by the balls.’
Copyright ©2002 Tony Crisp