Chris Beckett
Dead Letter
After years of silence she's talking again.
Not in the cemetery huddled under Box Hill
and always swept by a stern wind
which kills the flowers people bring,
but at four on a summer morning
when I could not sleep and her bible
seemed to drop dust and jump into my hand:
a letter falling from the second book
of Chronicles, a writing so familiar
I could hear the pen scratch and feel
the chrome cap still warm from her hand,
letters etched in the paper like crow's feet,
words that floated out of their sentences
and started chatting. Not just as she wrote
but in other combinations: random, topical.
It's lucky no-one was awake
to hear her call me little names
and offer me a cup of tea. Quite mad,
but that's her habit, and her charm.
Page(s) 57
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