[2025:46] Noodles, Paul Bavister

We took the lift to the twelfth floor
walked down the corridor to his flat
and the kitchen where we poured
hot water into noodle pots then
spluttered on chicken powder
and hard peas so we threw
our lunch from the balcony
and the plastic pots cracked
on the concrete path and then
we checked there was no one
down there and later as we
pushed through the swing doors
downstairs we found the mess
had been swept up and
a shadow watched us
from the ground-floor flat.