The Gorko Gazette

Bridge Lessons

The inscription reads,
To Laura, may the lessons of this book
stand you in good stead, love Dad, Christmas 1985.

It is a book of bridge lessons,
written before the internet,
when mistakes had to be learnt,
in the singular.

No-one offering advice on a you-tube video,
no forums saying what needs to be done,
and in what order.

The book is 40 years old,
Dad might have slipped the mortal coil,
as may Laura, who may never have taken
a single lesson to heart,
or applied it to any part of life
outside of a short game of Bridge.

We will never know the truth of it,
other than a totem of the past,
linking generations.

---

Flowers

Flowers grow in war zones,
where the promise of new life
and of new hope is always needed.

---

The Shed

The two jars,
one for nails,
one for screws,
the ball of rubber bands,
the different lengths of strings,
kept just in case they would come in handy.
The secret box of biscuits, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers.

The outside,
different colours,
where the shade of creosote, changed.
The plastic window, with the nail jutting out.

The unswept sawdust,
the two spiders,
with names that never suited them,
The old toothbrush, now missing the bristles.

The vice kept shut, to keep little faces
and smaller fingers out.
The dust that played in the sunlight
on the day of the funeral,
the soft key in the lock,
and the gradual letting go.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

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Image from Library of Congress: ‘Portrait of unidentified man’ by Mathew Brady