Hips akimbo
Head thrown back
Your toes are curled up
You look happy.
I cannot show this to anyone.
A sweaty little Polaroid you pressed into my hand
You said “Tara” and left with your old man.
We have all been had
But no-one ever had us quite like you.
Farewell Jezebel
Beloved mother of someone or other.
In fond remembrance
No one writes upon a gravestone very much at all.
They will not write about the time you got so drunk
You puked up in your handbag
In the back of that black taxi cab.
The precious hours you stole away from him to lie beside me
Or that time you wrote “I want you” on your t*ts
We hold these memories very close
But no-one held us quite like you.
Farewell Jezebel
Beloved mother of someone or other.
In fond remembrance
No one writes upon a gravestone anything of use.
This photograph I hold is silent.
It looks sad without the laughter.
I cannot share it with anyone.
And when they come to clear your house
They will not find a trace of us
Or anything about the world we knew.
Farewell Jezebel
Beloved mother of someone or other.
In fond remembrance
No one writes upon a gravestone very much at all.
©J Hayter 2011