Let's Start Again...

A sliver of a frozen dawn
pierces her cheek, as she
pulls up the blind; gags
over a coffee – black
as the bruises on her legs...

and the crescent moons
that cradle her eyes.
Sits and sifts the cobwebs
in her mind, fearful
of what she’ll find...

puts her clothes in the sink
to soak – cold water,
minus soap, the best thing
for blood, so Mamma said,
and she should have known.

Rinses last night’s dirty dishes,
winds the clocks, darns his socks
as, somewhere, a child cries;
hangs her dress on the line, sees
it drift in a mackerel sky. Only

fitting, the wind inhabits it now,
like the soul of a captive bird
in a last ditch attempt
to break the tie that binds.
A siren wails – far off...

his final words, stagnating
in her head. ‘Let’s start again...’
and he always did, she’d tell them.
Yet, there were miles to go
before her washing dried.