Superb Lifelike Visuals

Sam Morley

A small floorplan and everything else

big - like the 98-inch Smart TV

with quantum dots and a boofy couch -

turns this place into a 24hr loungeroom

where my parents are not blinking.

Their hands don’t orbit anywhere

near the other. Perhaps that’s marriage -

people don’t touch, but touch can’t

work when Blu-Ray tickles burnt milk skin.

Sometimes I can edge a question in like

how is life in the hometown? And sometimes

there is an answer, like the meat works

is closing and a consortium has moved

in and the Filipino boys mum houses

are going to miss permanent residency.

Jeez mum, I say, that’s a bombshell

but silence resumes, bar the jingle

snare and a thick-necked morning

show front man laughing at small

things which don’t move a muscle

on their soft faces. If it were quiet

enough perhaps we could all move

closer, I mean it’s a small place

I’ve been away and the murk

is still lurking around this room.