I see that smile just ghostly

 

and wonder how its creases, once familiar, now fold

into your open face. An ocean waits on all we almost said.

 

Comms by postcard, or phone box. Always late. Toothbrush, pencil

and notebook to collect. Remember not to bring ID.

 

Barbed wire rides a long, high fence. Inside we know the silos

hide – concrete, guarded. Uniforms ranked ready at the gate

 

with heavy boots and blue instruction. Nothing they can do

until we move: power hangs like a wind chime in stillness.

 

Bound by preparation we think ourselves unshakable. Yet

for missiles flying over, this land is no more than a map.

 

On some beach, uncharted, there’s a bonfire of resistance.

We unload pebbles from our pockets, float free. Tide-minded

 

never swallow fallout. But rinse our mouths with brine, spit out

those dreams – so rich, so wild, so fast – we cannot taste again.

 

 
v. 2025
 
photomontage - Peter Kennard

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