The Not-for-Burning Year
Written By Charlie Walker
By Margaret Beston
Some memories will not burn
as easily as her ‘to do’ list or the receipt
for a sweater hardly worn – like the horrors
of that night: sirens, flashing lights, stretchers,
concerned faces peering down.
No flame can char the picture of Bethany,
the nurse who brought shampoo from home
to wash her blood-soaked hair, or Grace
who found extra pillows at midnight
to bolster up her back, and Esther –
the student nurse who held her hand
as they wheeled her down for surgery.
In time she forgets the isolation of her room,
hours spent immobile, fearful – remembers
instead the comforting sound of a distant train
reaching out to her through darkness,
unchanging tracks certain of their destination.
Written Word ‘Heart’ poems
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