cw: death, grief, dementia
Granddad shrunk to the size of a damson,
gasped at my red hair                                           am I your Granddad?
red hair veiling tears of
damson jam, spooned from
jar to mouth to violet chins:
there is a violence to time.

Time that violets palms like aging fruit,
forgetting fingers once scraped spoons of
damson jam, voided a jar, vanished a sadness
in the folds of a fat jam sandwich.
Sadness purples my red hair                              am I your Granddad?

Granddad time-shrunk, size of a damson.
Damson laughs at my red hair,
laughter locked in jam jars,
fruitlessly
preserved.
Mary Senier (she/her) is a poet from the Black Country, England's coal-stained core. Her work often centers around ideas of place and identity. Mary has had work published by Abergavenny Small Press, Ample Remains, Re-Side Magazine, The Alchemy Spoon, Postscript Magazine, Fahmidan Journal, The Madrigal, Journal of Erato, and Tealight Press.
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