Rose<\/p>\n
Here is the rose
\nI cut from the rosebush yesterday,
\nplaced upon the ornamental box,
\na study in life after death.<\/p>\n
It is morning and you and I
\nhave just woken.
\nThere is birdsong.
\nAre we becoming light?<\/p>\n
Our bed is a small
\nChurch of England grave,
\na country place,
\nwhere the dew settles upon the grass.<\/p>\n
We rarely talk, but when we do,
\nwe mean it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fennel<\/p>\n
I rub fennel between my fingers
\nand some is taken up in the breeze.
\nI take it up to my mouth<\/p>\n
and chew. It is like aniseed, a universe.
\nAnd so the Benedictine draws
\nfor his botanica<\/p>\n
and here is my tongue;
\nI suggest taste is a dialogue
\nbetween man and God –<\/p>\n
I still suggest it.
\nHow the taste has not changed
\nin a thousand years.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps it has a little,
\nmoment by moment, here, or heaven,
\nfor it too is written.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My Grandmother’s Alzheimers<\/p>\n
My Grandmother\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s;
\nI sometimes think she is halfway to heaven:
\nshe stands up and says she must prepare<\/p>\n
for teaching the children;
\nof course she must.
\nThey all wear halos.<\/p>\n
Her daughter lives in a nice house
\ndown south; of course she does,
\nshe died last year<\/p>\n
and is with my grandmother\u2019s brother
\nwho she must call, she says
\nreaching for the telephone.<\/p>\n
And she knows I am still at school,
\nand she knows I must call my mother;
\nI see her hand pure white beneath the water<\/p>\n
as she picks up a newt,
\nor her baby sister out of the water,
\ncrying for mammy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rose Here is the rose I cut from the rosebush yesterday, placed upon the ornamental box, a study in life after death. It is morning and you and I have just woken. There is birdsong. Are we becoming light? Our bed is a small Church of England grave, a country place, where the dew settles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[327,328],"tags":[326],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n