I lie here - half alive.
Cast adrift to float in raging
seas of suffering and marooned
on this shadowy isle, I slide
further under the blankets and
prepare to shiver yet more
endless, abandoned hours
away... The television - half-baked.
A game show host - an oil
slick of insincerity - is
tearing off tissues of toothsome
tosh, but the remote has sailed
far out on the horizon so I
instinctively croak the capital
of China with mind-numbing
dismay... These sandwiches - half eaten.
Did the doctor really precribe corned
beef drowning in fruity sauce as a
panacea for Martian flu? What I would
love to dignose, right now, are
rashes of her footfalls on the stairs,
accompanied by the ambrosial
aromas of broth, soup or
stew... A chirping from below - half expected.
Some colleague pestering whether I'm
all right (rhetorical questions are the
office credo). They want me back, she
says, to close a dogs dinner deal, but
shaking with... I sink into the sodden
pillows and agree they'll have to wait
for my virulent self-pitying to
heal... | 
Listen to the 