Michael Henry
My Belgian Grandfather
Two horses swish their tails
back and forth like a striptease.
The apple tree they lean against
bears a white mark: ‘Fruit from this tree
is toxic and should be avoided’.
Two of my daughters
are looking at family photographs.
I could braid their ponytails
a la Siamese.
Shall I show them our family tree
and tell them in 1916
my grandfather wore an armband
of his country’s red, gold and black
and every night away from home
reported to an officer?
Shall I tell them
fruit from this tree is alien
and should be avoided?
Or shall I leave them be
and rub the white mark from the tree?
Page(s) 22
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