Poppies

• (1) "Spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer."
• (2) "run my fingers through the gelled/ blackthorns of your hair. All my words/ flattened, rolled, turned into felt,/ slowly melting."
• (3) "threw/ it open, the world overflowing/ like a treasure chest"
• (4) "After you'd gone I went into your bedroom,/ released a songbird from its cage."
• (5) "The dove pulled freely against the sky,/ an ornamental stitch, I listened, hoping to hear/ your playground voice catching on the wind."