The Lability of the Silent Era
I found my Dad on the morning of Mothering Sunday, fainted, naked and face down on the bathroom floor. His head was bleeding, and I thought at first he might have had another stroke. Thankfully, this didn't turn out to be the case, and he's back on track.

I have recently recovered from a very strange bout of the lurgy. In attendance were the normal aches and nausea and chestiness, but what made it strange was the symptom of lability. I had to run out of WH Smith. I started to cry as I was reading the printed message in one of the birthday cards they have for sale there.


Too much cider ...
O’ heartburn –
Soon my sleep will turn
From sough to stridor!

I sough with the cider and hock imbibed;
Outside, so soughs the wind.
Warfarin is the drug prescribed
To keep my Dad's blood thinned.
My Dad is Howlin' Warfarin;
And I am The Shill with the Porcelain
Nails, a silent comic from
The silent movie epoch.
My heart is burning with pomme
And pepsin and grief and hock.