Collector's Piece
‘Oh.’ Unclasping the locket, your face drops:
beret and regulation cut; widened,
wised up pupils. What if he keeps close guard
of his feelings? Weren’t you wrong to peel
them from his palm, as he slept on?
This squaddie in the frame – is he
asleep for good, or napping in snatches
between those threats that put us all
on tenterhooks: detonations,
diffuse gunfire? You’re right to pity
how he carries round on a neck chain
the fighter he’ll never become –
this man you picked up last night like
a locket, to open and read at a glance.
‘Oh.’ Unclasping the locket, your face drops:
beret and regulation cut; widened,
wised up pupils. What if he keeps close guard
of his feelings? Weren’t you wrong to peel
them from his palm, as he slept on?
This squaddie in the frame – is he
asleep for good, or napping in snatches
between those threats that put us all
on tenterhooks: detonations,
diffuse gunfire? You’re right to pity
how he carries round on a neck chain
the fighter he’ll never become –
this man you picked up last night like
a locket, to open and read at a glance.