29 OCTOBER 1988, Page 39

Suburb

Autumn, yellow as jaundice, clothes the road and reaches to the gate.

Thought is no more than a shift of gears at the drive: a rush of gravel and a sudden silence.

Inside, the TV punctuates the stare of one whose life is ruled by thermostats.

The freezer hums its continuous song of cold but somewhere something is being kept warm for someone.

Michael Cullup