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Jo Pacsoo, UK

Spring Moon

After several years of illness in my mid fifties I feel very fit. I enjoy walking again, cycling, sawing logs. At 60 I buy my Senior Railcard, go free into the Tate St Ives, start to iron my shirts. Clothes are the wrong shape. I break another tooth. The dentist counts the remainder; more than the stipulated number for National Health dentures. I read French books to test my memory; forget what I've come upstairs for. I wander round our field looking at the trees. Who will tend them when I'm gone? My mother's sewing box, the enduringness of things! I think of the gypsies who burn the possessions of the dead. Each day another dinner nearer to death.

spring moon
shadows loose skin
on my ageing hand

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