cousins

cousins

dedicated to Richard Morris Stoven Taylor, our ‘Uncle Morris’, and Jack Le Baige, who were cousins, and the journeys they took together

one a graduate in
dental science
known to all
as ‘Doc’
the other shrugged off
school at twelve for a
bank messenger’s job
that led to a farm job
and even his own farm
on a wind-blown coast
until the great depression
took it

remembering your talk
round our kitchen table
over scones, over sponge

i see you both on horses
riding along those black sand
beaches the sand blowing
round their hooves
like glittering streaks
of cirrus cloud

days like this

days like this

on days like this
cats sit tucked
between the curtains
and the glass
looking up to the
top of and the
bottom of the rain