Aftermath

Let’s rummage through the detritus:

 

glinting copper and yellow string,

 a smeared stack of handwritten letters,

written with agonising love and soothing shared sadness.

The impression of rainy mornings and soft brown fingers

caressing the paper like my burning paper face.

 

My knees are starting to lock up.

I can’t look away

from the smouldering embers       

catching fire in the cloth:

it burns sweetly smoky.

         

 

I press blister-blooming hands deeper.

 

Digital files stored away

burrowed deep within binary

images in high resolution

In Red Blue Green

 

Crawl through old memories that are not my own:

caught on camera, voice bell-clear

laughter billowing, tucked between dimples

moving and gesturing like any human being

just one ordinary human being thousands of miles away.

 

You have your own wreckage to sift through

 

You file it all away, neat as can be

gently, gently you erase me from existence

with the slow rub of dishwater over stains

all artefacts hidden deep in plain brown boxes

 

In amongst all the ink-stained notes

and silly trinkets and digital files

how long will it take you to forget about

The little round silver

slice of clockwork

carelessly handled

its broken form held close in guilty hands.