Caroline Gill
Stranger
One of those ordinary mornings:
she cradled her burden, bowed
down like a tree bulging with conkers.
The station heaved with arrivals:
backpackers passed by, jostling,
teeming like termites. Her feet
struck matches on ice edged
cobbles. She carried on walking,
stumbling, drifting. The smart
of chestnut smoke unfettered
floodgates of exile. Her tears
froze, frosting the pigeons.
One of those ordinary evenings:
the first ripe conker fell.
She set light to her burden
- firewood for the hearth of `home'.
she cradled her burden, bowed
down like a tree bulging with conkers.
The station heaved with arrivals:
backpackers passed by, jostling,
teeming like termites. Her feet
struck matches on ice edged
cobbles. She carried on walking,
stumbling, drifting. The smart
of chestnut smoke unfettered
floodgates of exile. Her tears
froze, frosting the pigeons.
One of those ordinary evenings:
the first ripe conker fell.
She set light to her burden
- firewood for the hearth of `home'.
Page(s) 32
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