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Edward Storey

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Yellow Flag-Irises

They were all I could give,
wild flowers stolen from the riverside
one summer morning when a boy
desperately needed to express
that most difficult of all feelings - love.

All I could think of was that you,
my always-there, busy-about-the-house
mother, were ill in bed, and I,
not knowing whether you would
ever get well again, wanted to say

a lifetime of ‘sorrys’, as if
there’d not be time to make amends
for all the ways I’d wounded you
with crueller words
that children can be guilty of.

Nor, as a child of ten,
could I describe exactly how I felt
for someone who had spared
nothing of herself.  Those flowers
were my only feelings then.

I put them in a jar
hoping their colours would perform
a miracle.  They were, I said, a gift
from nature.  It was too late
when I could offer more in summers after.

Page(s) 45

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