Tim Kindberg
Three voices above the sea
A thunk in the night woke me to start from my blankets
and dreams in the black-ribbed dark. The top bunk
in this pitching room in the house on the harbour,
groaning with centuries, loosed my son to fall
between sleep and soft-boned awake. Harmlessly.
Sister departed, tell, tell but do not disturb us so.
It is three a.m. You make my son fall.
Daddy, I’ll be alright.
I thought I was at home, in my single bed; I took a step
to investigate - a breath I should not have heard.
My breath, foreign, shallow, in another place. Mummy,
mummy. My bed is burning. Everywhere a shuttling light,
shuttling brass, the oxygen machine.
I cannot think what she means by it.
But she is here, a vapour in the cold.
Her tear still falls. I attend, sleepless, to its travel
down her face. Sister departed, listen...
The long draught till dawn
empties down to the sea, sucking the palms and sheaves
of phormium, taking me. Ebb past ashes in the sand. Retreat
where brass sun rises, brass sun will fall
…he sleeps now. But speak not in faux mischief,
so unlike you. Go home. Go heavenward where you belong.
Leave my son alone.
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