ADVICE FROM OUR GUIDE
Stand to glimpse the agora with a partial ornamental lake.
Scan the bouleuterion curves, count seatless niches.
Consider one pillar, three empty corners, marble shavings.
Multiply one half triangle of puzzled together Roman stones.
Raise Lazarus slices of a Doric column.
Slide aside the land, still the quake.
Listen to the bullfrogs.
Bathe in wild flower fragrance.
Navigate an anemone palette.
Tread lightly through daisies.
© Marilyn Hammick
POPPIES
She came to my door
selling poppies
tin round her neck
headscarf queenly
under her chin.
Today the police broke down her door
she wasn't at Church
the Guides had missed her.
Rope unseemly
under her chin.
My next door neighbour said
You do know her: headscarf, poppies.
© Marilyn Hammick
THE WIDOW AND HER DAD
He taught her
the difference between silly-mid-on and fine-leg
short and long dividing
that she couldn't sing
the craft of losing.
He taught her children
the difference between silly-mid-on and fine-leg
fly-fishing
two-spit digging
how to make bread pudding.
She taught him
the sense of crying
a bit of hand sewing
how to keep going.
© Marilyn Hammick
