I've known your name all my life
and parcels and
crystallised fruit
I opened and expensive
handkerchiefs and foreign things.
You made birthdays exotic.
There was an orchestrated
fantasy, see under
the framed watercolour elephant
I could almost hear drums
and a grassy pulse, a mirage
of belonging.
You were an improved person for
never having swung me up
then watched me grow
to slow
self-destruct.
Refusing grief over
so many miles
discovering:
We were better off without
each other.
