A last-gasp list about the poet remembering a woman manacled



    -      (or menacled)
    -       it's two men
    -      apparently
    -       have handcuffed her
    -       to the bunks
    -       in the hut
    -       the (older) men
    -       drink whisky
    -       contemplating
    -       nodding sagely?
    -       (rosemary-ily?)
    -       remembering anyway
    -       the ways of young
    -       and wilderness/
    -       (wildness?)
    -       play their cards
    -       ace of spades
    -       black black
    -       trumps hearts
    -       red red
    -       the Tilley lamp
    -       goes out
    -       (no more fuel?)
    -       the woman sighs
    -       or breathes/
    -       gasps
    -       faints
    -       (feints?)
    -       the old men sleep
    -       black black
    -       and dream
    -       of being young
    -       men manacling
    -       in the wildness
    -       (wilderness?)
    -       of their dreams
    -       black




(c) Ruth Brassington. All rights reserved.
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The bottom half of an image of a flax frond.