Pen Kease – at his feet

a few days later and the brother arrives
to take his newly washed clothes away

she   didn’t   know   when   she   coupled
socks       that     he     was    already
dead

she   has    been    to    Pompeii    knows
they pour in plaster            don’t they?

then  chip  away  at  petrified  ash  from
the writhing bodies     their dogs

you feel you can touch their death     his
shoes      are      like      that     too

today      on  top  of  the  box   of clothes
each shoe cradles         the ghost of a foot

Pen Kease was once a teacher, but these days writes poems. She has a recent MA in Writing from the University of Warwick and her poems have been published in a range of literary magazines and websites, including The Interpreter’s House, Atrium, The Recusant, Militant Thistles, and Prole Magazine. She lives in South Oxfordshire with her husband and cat, and cares for a scattered family as best she can.