1
I sat all morning in the college sick bay. Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two O’clock our neighbours drove me home
2
In the porch I met my father crying– he had always taken funerals in his stride. And big jim evans saying it was a hard blow
3
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram when I came in, and I was embarrassed by old men standing uo to shake my hand
4
And tell me they were ‘sorry for my trouble’. Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest away at school, as my mother held my hand
5
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived with the corpse. Stand and bandaged by the nurses
6
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops and candles soothed the besdie. I saw him for the first time in six weeks. Paler now
7
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple. He law in the four-foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper kncked him clear.
