Friday 16 September 2011

Apology









inspired by Michael Longley’s ‘Petalwort’
i. m. Mabel Winifred Reece ("Aunty Freda")


You wanted your ashes sprinkled
off the point at Morte, unapproachable
jags of rock you steered a course round well
into your nineties. I place you under
new-cut turf in the council cemetery.
It’s just as good, I tell you, you can still
see the sea from here; better really
that view along the sands.

You would never have been so
selfish but I need this place
need to feel you sheltered here
need your mark on man-made stone.
The weather you send, sunlight lifting the fog
over Baggy Point, suggests you forgive me.

Susanna Reece

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