Ambient Terror Roosting

Mother is coughing

why does the phone ring

was the tag legible, so

did a car squash 

the dog, again?

Will father ever shut the

bloody gate, 

again?

Mother is coughing

I should get up 

has she left me yet

where's the dog,

does the dog still breathe

I should poke him

if he bites then he breathes

all this running all my life

like machine learning

behind the screensaver

and that, is but one 

of ambient terror's strata

or the horror pushing

out a ring from the

centre of a tree

so the baby's coughing

and so is mother

so am I

suddenly within generations

cosseted by worry

they shan't leave

neither could I.