everybody's mother

something. went badly wrong

at first

we didn't really notice

we got used to bumping about together and stepping on each other's toes

funny how that happens

we felt it in different ways

some people thought they were getting bigger

or their skin was over-sensitive

and they needed to insulate themselves with shopping

others felt squeezed

choked

and confined

and sought open spaces

which they never found

but the world was getting smaller and smaller

it was like a balloon going down

everything getting tiny

brighter

more intense

and squashed up together

it was cluttered

uncomfortable

you couldn't find anywhere to sit down

i was everybody's mother in nightly tears before the television news

my children

in flux

cyclones and revolutions

it was all going sour

all going sour

i was scrubbing individual stones on a huge beach

i was making sandwiches for the whole of somalia

i was shouting fire" in a thousand languages