poppies

• Three days before armistice Sunday
• Individual war graves
• Before you left I pinned onto your lapel
• Spasms of paper red
• Sellotape bandaged around my hand
• Smoothed down your shirts upturned collar
• Graze my nose across the top of your nose play at being eskimos
• Run my fingers through the blackthorns of your hair
• All my words flattened rolled turned into felt
• I was brave
• The world overflowing like a treasure chest
• A split second and you were away , intoxicated
• After you’d gone I went into your soon and released a songbird from its cage
• Dove fell from from the pear tree
• My stomach busy making tucks darts pleats
• I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial , leaned against it like a wishbone
• Dove pulled freely against the sky
• I listened hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind