Whilst you lay in silent rows on the village edge
a hundred yards away, we sat upright
and watched our natural joy siphoned into pyrex jars
(and stored for educational purposes)
dark prose presented in purpose built code
no entry for unauthorised personnel (or children)
dandelions and sticky weed, poor sod
there you were, underneath it all
holding the slim volumes tightly to your cold chest
I was 30 years late, when I found you, winter time, dog eared and fragrant
you didn’t seem to mind, it’s not as if I kept you waiting
and it was there I watched the words billowing in opaque clouds
before returning again to cold