Giles Goodland
Sloes
If the difference we had in common
had a sign, it would be these,
black against black branches,
or held inside the fist, plucked.
In half-remembered fields
trees withdrew from leaves
as we tried to retrace
which cattle-trodden gateway it was
that led to the good tree, which
when we found it, was like newsprint:
the closer we looked the more dots we saw.
The sutures between sloe and twig
were touch-loose. We filled carrier bags,
and that evening sat silently and pricked,
and bottled each berry into its plastic
corrugated home, shook them and watched
sugar dissolve to a red so dark it
was eventually black. The bottles
shadowed a shelf for months, a year.
One evening, at last, or too late,
you cleared out your stuff,
but left your share of the sloe gin.
If things had only opened up more
when the bitterness was ripening,
but now I have the time, sweet-sour,
and a single whisky-glass to drink it with.
I gather moments distilled from our
bruised skins, and they slowly change me.
Page(s) 34
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