Thursday 3 October 2013

Another Letter

 













the strangest things were happening
now we’d written “i love circumstance”
in lipstick on the 2 & a ½ mirrors
in the purloined room.

calm, unobtrusive, weather
gave way to a storm
far out to sea
way beyond our noticing.

1,000s drowned, you managed to save our lives
thanks to the drawing lessons you’d had at school.

~

the man slept on the couch in the other
room, dead to all worlds. oblivious to
the cold. i suppose it had been quite a party. in the morning our breath in the kitchen
frosted inches from our lips as we made tea.

the man shambled in, offered round cigarettes,
i had a heavy cold & declined.
perhaps he was your lover.
i threw up in the bathroom, so perhaps i had the ‘flu.

it took the authorities days to cut the bodies down. the strolling players continued unperturbed, 
in town to perforn the usual mix of tragedy & farce (so fierce were the reprisals the soldiers ran out of bullets).

~

1 day i tried on my mother’s lipstick
wondering how it felt. the next day
a pale, greeny sun. a late bee
made its way in through the kitchen window.

(i promised i’d call you later, to let you know how i was.

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