Kerry Andrew
Wakefield
the farm-smoulder smell
in the crunch of cold and coal
clogged gluey in my throat
Dad said I had
done them all proud
I’d not cried once ‘til then
not in the 3-star hotel when
he had closed the bathroom
door on his weeping
or hiding in the kitchen as they
cobwebbed her coffin with whispers
and called her by Christian name
not in the sleek second car
through rainwalled roads
whitening my uncle’s knuckles
or in the stiff-hill church
shifting on wood and stone
with prayers of fogged breath
but outside, in the ice-hug
we’d step into on each visit
I was told it was a cremation
seems ages now
the stout barrel body
abrasive in acrylic flowerprint dress
the sweet tea scalding
in translucent china cups
her bark and black frown
if we didn’t make our plates gleam
the cool rose-crepe cheek
I secretly loved to kiss
the finger-lipped magic
of the front room
the ear-bruising bite outside
that she shrugged off to shuttle coal
that snapped at the cold
and made the brass beam
and now lay fossils in the grate
Page(s) 67-68
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