Liz Atkin: An Elegant Hearse

AN ELEGANT HEARSE
Brisk daughters emptied out your cluttered flat into the yellow skip, staple tins, beans and peaches, born in rationing days, a hoarders hundred of locks and hinges prised from discarded doors, frayed plugs, toothbrushes, and decades of newspaper topped off with flowers that died with your sudden illness. Whilst they were attending the crenellated crematorium sitting smokeless on false lawns I watched you swing up into the air held secure under netting and your walking stick forgotten hanging from the skip lip tapping jauntily as in life.
LIZ ATKIN

AN ELEGANT HEARSE

Brisk daughters emptied out
your cluttered flat
into the yellow skip,
staple tins, beans and peaches,
born in rationing days,
a hoarders hundred of
locks and hinges prised
from discarded doors,
frayed plugs, toothbrushes,
and decades of newspaper
topped off with flowers
that died with your sudden illness.

Whilst they were attending
the crenellated crematorium
sitting smokeless on false lawns
I watched you swing up into the air
held secure under netting
and your walking stick forgotten
hanging from the skip lip
tapping jauntily as in life.

LIZ ATKIN

Liz Atkin lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Her first collection Glee with a Blue Background was published by Diamond Twig Press. The Biscuit Tins of England was published by Iron Press in 2003.

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