Nancy

with Kathryn Ross

"When every other track
Is scratched or worn away
Nancy, sing the songs of yesterday"

Nancy
how could you forget
the blueness of your eyes

was it..
the careless placement of your glasses
yet again
or the cardigan you left behind
at our favourite restaurant

remember?

our silver wedding dinner
or was it..

the slow bleach
of your best-loved blouse
thin at the elbows
from so much living

a TV noonday
bathes your skin
the turning
the turning of pillows
and the hems
of a childhood song
gathered tightly in

was it..
you sang them to me
or we sing to them?

Nancy
I have folded
your cardigan for you
I went back for every
one of them

was red
one was blue
and scented of the lilacs
in some year ending in two

Written with Kathryn Ross