You Can't Pretend in the Dark

The anxious winds that weave and wind

Your jumper on the washing line

A hand me down from mother’s side

But the threads are drifting apart

On the pitches where we scraped our shins

They’ve built a new development

But model homes aren’t serious

Still the locals disapprove

The crimson parts that drip with shame

In locker rooms. I won’t evade

This ambient uncertainty

But you can’t pretend in the dark

Remember when I cut my neck

Erupting plumes on milky flesh

They billowed like your cousin’s dress

Through market stalls in June

And somewhere on the crowded page

I saw your dad’s obituary

But never found the cemetery

So I sat and drank in my car