Time For A Boil Wash

Let me take you back


Remember?


I was a clean
Crisp
Bright
Sheet


I was Hanging
on a line
Singing
Sunshine
with the breeze


I was thinking
What ought I
In futuretimes
Be


Perhaps I would
one day become
the preferred shirt
of a lyrical poet
or the garment
Loved by a beloved
and treasured long after
they'd loved
and moved on
The lover
Seeking solace
From the odour
Left In me


I would maybe 
be the cloth
that covered lovers
as they sweated
and sticky grasped
each others
Melting parts


I saw me
being dyed purple
become master
of everything
A King of Fabrics
the cloth of time


And for a time
I was treasured
but cleaning
Left scars
And each days efforts
Left Stretch marks
And despite my service
My protection from sharps
My warmth in cold
My comfort on harsh
As I grew thin
In places
And demanded patches
As stains bloomed
Betrayal hatched in faces
And upon my thinning skin


I'm now folded
Hastily
And sit patiently
At the bottom
Of a pile
Of others


And I grow mould
My unwelcome spawn
In my creases
As I'm crushed
And so alone


In the dark.