A ghost visited me in the womb, where I was unintended. None of us here have been intended, not by our earthly parents.
The ghost came, skeleton glowing through the skin, phosphorescent as fishbones. He breathed on me his canker breath of:
Soot blackened brick
Sick vegetation that clings to ruins
Greasy, still canal water
Sodium light smear on wet pavements and evergreen hedges
Chemical colours curdle and clot from bloated bin bags
Monotonous dripping of railway arches
Odour of the crypt
Cracked drainpipes, conduits, fractured edges streaked with algae and rust
Acetone breath
Blank skies, nagging wind
Too many exhalations