I sprinkled some flour on his back
and told him to thank me later.
He looked at me with the sort of
bemused and slightly fear-struck
expression that you'd expect upon
hearing such an utterance
from a complete stranger.
Later that day once he'd returned home
and swore at the flour patch
I'd left at the tip of his suit blazer,
he made to pat it away,
but it soon became clear that this pat
unearthed something long-lost within him,
and such was the infectiousness
of this particular beat that
he spread his rhythmic patting motion
to other parts of the room.
His wife, upon hearing him
really getting into a good pat
on the drawer, ran down the stairs
screaming, and in recognising
his focused patting efforts
and the swaying motion of his head
went to go find the children.
one more time she'd said
one more time
and they were gone.
And so they clambered
into the car and sped away
much his blissful ignorance
who in the meantime had
worked his way into the kitchen
and was now having a go on the toaster.
