Month: March 2016

Debris

The heavy storm has broken, the sky crisp with relief.
Here in the aftermath, amid broken shells and half eaten crabs,
hair cracked like seaweed, draped in tattered cloth her eyes forever open.
Your doll, the one we bought from the Woolworths on the sea front, she waits for your return.

The time you hid beneath the towels in the bathroom cupboard

You sat for hours, quiet as a mouse. I’d looked and then not so much. Distracted with some other game.  Some other way to pass the time. I didn’t know you’d wait. Thought you’d come out. You didn’t. Always dedicated to the game.

Come 4 the heater kicked in. The room got stuffy, heat rising, air heavy. Coughing and drowsy Dad pulled you out.

Hide and seek champion.

You got double helpings of ice cream that night.

Sealed

She sat within, knees high, shoulders low. The roof was heavy, the sides claustrophobic. She pushed at the edges, felt the sticky gum. The dry glob of saliva holding her down.

Her hands caressed the material. The envelope was thick, plain, she’d hoped for the thin crisp of airmail.

Her fingers stroked the impressions of reversed letters. Trying to calculate her destination. Address unknown.

No one would know.

She sat within. Waiting to be delivered.

Waiting to be found.