Respite

By Allan Lake

So warm inside the medical centre.
Padded chairs, clean toilets, TV, chilled water. 
Nobody asks why I’m here. Receptionists don’t 
notice me so my invisibility is working today. 
As their title suggests they’re paid to receive 
not to sort out those with appointments and those 
who need a warm, dry place to rest on a cold, 
rainy Melbourne Monday.
Doctors pop out of rooms, call out names 
that are never mine. Back on the street 
I break for a cheap doughnut, cheaper coffee,
‘free’ banana from a supermarket. I can retire 
from rat race (with pension) in thirty-one years 
but till then it’s a battle that only lacks 
an identifiable enemy other than myself.

Allan Lake, a stray from Allover, Canada, now writes poetry in Allover, Australia.
Latest chapbook of poems, ‘My Photos of Sicily’, published by Ginninderra Press, 2020.