after Les Murray's "Shower"

Loaf of bread or sheep's
head, rubber nubbed
for traction on flatnesses
or frogged to a kitchen wall;
poker-faced bearer of job offers
and death notices; deaf,
stuttering house servant
in whose presence everyone
speaks freely; married couple,
vows forever tangling, or
cool detached lover who by day
roams from room to room
spouseless and priapic,
only to return at night,
exhausted;