Poppies

• "Three days before Armistice Sunday

  and poppies had already been placed"
• "on individual war graves. Before you left,

  I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals."
• "Sellotape bandaged around my hand,

  I rounded up as many white cat hairs

  as I could ..."
• "Upturned collar, steeled the softening of my face.

  I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your nose."
• "to run my fingers through the gelled

  blackthorns of your hair. All my words

  flattened, rolled, turned into felt,"
• "After you'd gone I went into your bedroom,

  released a song bird from its cage."
• "skirting the church yard walls, my stomach busy

  making tucks, darts, pleats,..."
• "On reaching the top of the hill I traced

  the inscriptions on the war memorial,

  leaned against it like a wishbone."
• "The dove pulled freely against the sky,

  an ornamental stitch, I listened, hoping to hear

  your playground voice ..."
• "...without

  a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves."