Can You Help? by Kevin Reid

Removing the leather belt
and the spent needle
from the cooker, she claims
the boy is trying.

Floors furred with dog hair,
says the vacuum’s broken,
offers tea or coffee
in cracked cups. 

Lifting a stained scrap of paper
from a pile of junk on the floor,
she shows me a detox plan –
Diazepam 5-4-3-2-1,
his father didn’t make it.

Kevin Reid lives in Angus. He is the founding creator of the online multimedia collaborations >erasure and >erasure ii and Wordless, an image and text collaboration with George Szirtes published by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press. He’s also the editor of Nutshells and Nuggets, a blogzine for short poems. His poetry can be found in various online and printed zines including, Domestic Cherry, And Other Poems, The Open Mouse, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Interpreter’s House, The Stare’s Nest and The Poetry Bus, and forthcoming in Under the Radar.
Visit http://eyeosphere.com/ to see all his online work