Some poems

Five
conversations I can no longer bear to have in person




(i)




Remember
what a bugle meant?

Flag
pennant colours




remember?




We
grew up watching the same films,

you
know what I’m talking about: a battlefield




shields
snug against shields, swords tingling

with
unshed blood and bones stiff with knowing

they
could lie bleaching under a foreign sun

and
if there was any loving