after David Attree

The word is ‘gather’ so I think about rakes
and dad arms and leaves pulled together
by a gentle strength with their brothers
and sisters and cousins to listen to tea-slurps,
smell cheap sausages on emergency BBQs,
watch the sun shine on uncle foreheads,
hear the sound of auntie jewellery jingle on wrists.
There’s a new word. I think it’s ‘home’
but it may have been ‘hope’ or ‘how’
as in, ‘How was it that long ago?’
or ‘How do we go back and ask how he’s doing?’

Carl Burkitt 2024