'Merryn Williams is the editor of the @Interpreter's House' magazine. Her collection 'The First Wife's Tale' was long-listed for the Welsh Book of 2007'.

DROWNED
 
Dont' come home.  There's nothing left
in your eighth-floor office.
Now your laptop, now your discs
are all deep underwater.
 
Not a war.  We planned for that,
put our bolts and chains up;
spent, perhaps, a billion pounds
on early warning systems.
 
Looked askance at dark-skinned men,
unfamiliar headcloths;
glibly talked of them or us,
and now we drown together.
 
Sodden rags bob to and fro
on that yellow whirlpool.
Don't come near us.  Now the flood
is racing through your bedroom.