25th November 2020

 

still dark

a woman walking a boxer pup

as we get dressed

© Rachel Green November 2020

Edmund

had the worst case of psoriasis

I've ever seen

and looked ninety by age ten.

He lived near the church

where the vicar told my dad

"So good to see you. You're here so rarely."

and he never went there again

though it was the best place for photographs

and to build up my collection

of human finger bones

although mum was horrified when she found them

hidden in an old coffee tin

in my shed-cum-playhouse

and insisted my dad put them on the bonfire

while I went to confession.

© Rachel Green November 2020