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Tea and Battenburg (Free verse) by Caducus
Pressing iron to cloth
Nan whistled flutes
Before cigarettes brought
Cavalries of blood and mucous
Routed by a curious handkerchief
Initialled âSFâ.
Pressing lead to tabloid
Grandad scoffed battenburg
Peeling off the marzipan
Quartering the sponge
He only ate the yellow
Yet never told me why.
Nan sat down for her programme
Grandad mashed some tea
Balancing a tray of chipped china
And a new pack of cigarettes
That grandma would smell
Savouring the deadly veils.
Next summer
I found my Grandad
Whistling like Grandma.
He held her in his mottled hands
Crying in a frayed red handkerchief,
Initialled âSFâ
By a photo of her secret son.
His name was Stephen Forrester
And all of a sudden
Battenburg and tea tasted different.
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