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NORTH WEST WORDS<br />
SPRING / SUMMER <strong>2018</strong> ISSUE 9<br />
Keeper<br />
The first one didn't care for words.<br />
The first one drank alone,<br />
gambling <strong>and</strong> grumbling.<br />
The first one knew I could never match<br />
his sadness.<br />
The first one seemed both safe <strong>and</strong> sorry,<br />
the first one took his salty grief<br />
<strong>and</strong> stepped soundly into my past.<br />
The new one says his life is a slow boil<br />
of aching days , like surly knots<br />
tied in a rope running through his fingers.<br />
He grips his spoon overh<strong>and</strong><br />
plunges it into the chilly pot,<br />
eating last night’s dinner for breakfast.<br />
He smirks then, claims his stomach<br />
is empty but his mouth is full.<br />
The new one covered his watch<br />
with his h<strong>and</strong><br />
when I asked the time,<br />
revealed it like a flipped coin<br />
when I guessed wrong.<br />
He wrote my name on the back<br />
of my photograph,<br />
pressed a fold into its centre<br />
stood it like an open book<br />
13
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