Mark R Slaughter (1957)

Now man-to-man;
Once child and child
At play
Beneath our mother’s aura;
Brothers bound in innocence –

Mother’s tearful reticence was
Hiding in her smile.
Deeper hung the lead weight
Heavy in her heart

Oxidising:

The man she never mentioned
Slept between the beats.

We slept cuddled in the sheets.

We’d be older when she’d tell us that
Our father died at war –
The day the family ruptured; saw
The tired rings bless Mum’s kind eyes.

Now we’re grown-up brothers
Skirmishing with grown-up life.
And still the aura glows, tho’ distant;
Dimmer.

Mother knows we’re wiser,
Tighter
In our brotherhood of blood.
We sense it; sense her,
Sleeping
Comfy in the wood.


Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2011










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brother brother brother brother brother let me be
brother brother brother brother brother brother see?
brother brother brother brother brother you are he
brother brother brother brother brother brother, me.