In the wreckage of a house clearance,

a face distorts in a fractured glass eye.

Painted on gesso and northern white pine,

old acrylic eyelashes flash a recognition.

 

Stippled like a stormy summer,

worn and battered flanks shiver in the dust.

A torn rosette from a forgotten fete

hangs by a mane, shabby and faded.

 

Familiar sounds echo in the room:

the rhythmic squeak of tarnished swing irons,

the abandoned joy of a child’s laughter,

urging speed with giddying shrieks.

 

Memories locked in beautifully flawed wood,

as fingers trace words etched in brass,

re-joining a father’s name at the base of a gift,

sold and lost in the dying days of January;

 

the forty year provenance of a final project

documented in a set of saddlebag Polaroids.

 

Clearance - YouTube