PORTRAIT
Location
United Kingdom
55° 22' 40.9836" N, 3° 26' 9.5028" W
See map: Google Maps
This charcoal is not me:
sooty curls on paper thick
a blonde-combed lad
caught by the flash
of father's thick-veined hand
Scritch, scratch
a boy presumed
fabricated
in proud
parent’s eye
Now
flesh filled with years;
Queer coloured by memory
inked with the touch of lovers
lines, squat and weary
I burn this brittle
yellowed flesh
and amongst its cindered bones
is childhood
cremated
© John Gilbert, 2018
This poem is about:
Me
My family