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"Petting the childhood memory"

Martin Corless-Smith

   

By faith endure
because my animal is close
I grow incorporate
with loss

The wandering grave
we perch upon
as if we have
a destination

A car reverses
Over us
the dark garage
the underpass

Perish the thought
perish the wings
a small ship
founders in the waves

But then another
and another sail
I do not see
come into view

I’ve left a message
knit below
the lasting place
we never knew

My Dad’s Cortina
parked outside
the tarmacked drive
in 1972

The West Brom scarf (of night and day)
this spitfire doll
all wrapped in tinsel
for the festival

The barge proceeds
Upon the midnight Ouse
to gangplanks that
alight in bluey black

And all be done
And whisper past
The quiet street
We used to live