-for Chiara, Emma and Sophie
we eat goats cheese with thin crackers that break
we sit on wet grass and poke miniature umbrellas in gaps
I think I’m uninteresting but they keep talking
she relays her embarrassing stories with a paper cup on her shoulder,
-the war memorial behind her.
we eat fried squid tendrils, fried rice, duck and bok choy.
we sit in an alley at school tables, no one argues
when we finish the ladies reapply their lipstick
i wonder why trauma sticks out, nearly wins,
-her bad bikini experience.
we close our eyes and open them in a small dark room
we sing along to a large screen with words growing grey
words we never noticed, aspects of one another we’ve never seen
she sings like Edith Piaf, for the moment I take my eye off death,
-see their coloured lips flash, forget.
