A Memory Brought Up To Date

After the storms had passed
the Rag n’ Bone man came down our street
searching for discarded secrets
put out from behind closed doors, boxed neat …
 
Some vocations are attempted absolutions
of humanity’s fault-lines
like scraping dead pets off hot tarmac
or picking litter from distraught beaches …
 
This is the work of poets
practicing on the edge of possibility
grinding pain into fine dust
and offering it to the four winds.