6. Crab-apple Juice

There’s still
enough juice in the old crab-apple
for a gullop or
two of scrumpy,
but who to drink
it with now?
Since parts of me
began to drop off
I have been
careful to abandon
the careless
abandon of my springtime
when we hitched up
Motorways out of our minds
and drank
ourselves into the unknown,
silly on thin air
and laughter.

Your news came to
me,
triple filtered
and sour
years later.
You must have been
old
when you died.
I only remember
you young.

Now you are
stretched out for ever
on the faded
candlewick of a cheap motel
holding me as a
mummy holds on to life
And we listen uncomprehending
to the alarum of
sparrows
that has broken
our day.

The years have
shrivelled away like old fruit
and now they
scatter further
like dry leaves in
the wind.
Just like us,
dear.
Still, there’s
enough juice in this old crab-apple
For a mug or two
of scrumpy with somebody.
Surely?


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