New People

by Alison J Barton

I had no chance to talk about him
    share anecdotes strange
        I said

he gave us everything

we remembered the beach
the shoreline
surfing small waves
the dog died: loss of him again

how the cemetery
was so still
it never rained
she didn’t cry then
she’s had more time somehow

she gave me what I needed
rivalry gone
possible to forget
dread
just be

by the plastic apricot bed
hard sheets white
holding hands
dense with the bodily paternal

maybe we could
start again
brave
with nothing to forgive 

Alison J Barton is a Melbourne-based poet and writer. She attended writing school in the 2000s but her best expression came from introspection and learning its relation to the external world. Themes of feminism and psychoanalysis are central to Alison’s work. She has been published in various journals and magazines.