1999

a cult this nostalgia,
cracks and breaks and hopes
old words, old songs
old seconds on the hand

Joined up, cursive, flowing
A beautiful font of achievement
shakier now, older,
harder to admire

stamped envelopes,
faded blue, airmail,
new sepia, no tone, thin,
fired from five thousand miles

kiss on the chest,
small, bigger, blooming,
A stone lodged hard
central to the heartbeat

remembered, boxed and left,
a skitter, flutter inside
arrhythmia, unread and sealed
then lost to air and time.