The walls and ceiling are heat-slicked grease
Covering an inadequate white. Scant.
The yellow linoleum: now grimy,
Now smelling of too much disinfectant
And carrying tracks of mildewed grease.
Lino.. Roof for a secret, insect world.

Cockroaches compete with beetles, grimly
For dance space on the kitchen table top.
Gold-brown centipedes hide in the damp mop
And house-flies live, and bear, and die their days
In the hidden corners and cranny-ways.
Deathwatch beetles group, to the barracks come
And occupy the wooden, kitchen world.
Termites! In the spoon? “Soldier Welcome!”