His eyes are oddly close together and
he wears two wedding rings. A scratchy chin
and old dirt under those fingernails. Blue
eyes. Eyes like that make you forget the world.
Grubby face. Punch and Judy sausage thumbs.
Backstage his wet-sweat hair never seems clean.
His wife lays a hand on his back as they
walk away – and to think he used to be
a stripagram. Still uses the stripper’s
comb and wears a strippers smile. He can leave
his hat on – that’s Birchington’s Bill Sikes. He’s
a Frank – and his jaw reminds me of the
rats that run in the city. Matinee tomorrow