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Nigel Humphreys

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Missing Cousins

2nd Prize TUT Open Poetry Competition

After the committal
in the bounce of relief on the sodden grass
a crows’ murder in the skeletal trees
and the oboe low of anguish held fading

we,
each other’s diminishing assets,
shake hands, speak through layers of sugarcoating
and count our coinage in children’s names

meet
as one might sit through an old Hitchcock film,
striated, jump-flicker, poor imaging
viewed each time in door-step de-gradations

remember how
in our childhood as all but siblings
we rang out over the rime, under arc-lights,
raced the marram grass to the sea

what now
but a favourite uncle’s brass handles,
the lines in a scripted frown,
the fake grass presenting the open grave?

and
in loose-leaf time
we will leave each other again
like abandoned receipts curling in an attic

so
straighten my smile
scrape the damp earth from your hug
and curb your impatience with minutiae

 

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