Jeanette Hattersley
Carnations
Bright, red-hot things
flirting with figurines
in a room, busy
with lips and polka-dots,
stockings, seams, pale-ale,
swing bands, swinging skirts.
Months later,
fastened firmly,
bound with ribbon,
they blush pink,
tremble at the altar.
At dinners
they are cheeky salmon
cascading down walls
as workmates dance
with workmates’ wives.
How soon they cool
to green,
watchful in windows
as lilac whispers
in darkened lanes.
Yellow, in cellophane,
they are peace-offerings
the colour of teeth,
of tablecloths,
of His ‘n’ Hers pillowslips.
They wither, they are
Dark, ragged things
limp from rain
in a churchyard, busy
with grudges and secrets,
eyes, filling, watching
turned soil turn to mud.
Page(s) 54
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