PORTRAIT

Location

United Kingdom
55° 22' 40.9836" N, 3° 26' 9.5028" W

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

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