Michael Henry
Side Return
They used to sit in the back of the Mini
while their mother, Lady Bountiful,
tried to help the woman who couldn’t cope
with her husband’s Multiple Something, when
the only multiple they knew was choice.
They used to while away the time, reflecting
little white shadows with their watches.
They remembered from when their mother died
the sympathy of female faces,
plastered with make-up like chocolate marshmallow.
Their mother had taken a very strong poison.
But why didn’t that woman she’d helped send a card?
‘Sympathy’s easier to give than to receive,’
their father said, his arms raspberry-rippled
from having a go at the brambles and
pouring concrete for a side return to the house.
This was a nocturne without a strand of light.
Now, like the revival of a dusty play,
they hear once more the fluent tolling of the bells
for that multiple which is not choice. But
they’re big boys now. Too big to sit it out.
Page(s) 17
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