hillside
stephen kingset fell off the rocks
above the river where the boy’s body was found
floating down like a log
stephen kingset climbed back up
he came home for beans on toast
looked like he had never eaten before
mum said
the drowned boy’s mum was wailing
soundlessly
we were too far away on the warm smooth rocks
above the abandoned gold mine
with the locked doors
a piton someone said it was
phaw we spat out
it’s a german bullet lodged in the rock
for there were bomb craters full of water
up on the marsh up on the hill
full of weeds and dragonfly larvae
it was always windy on kilvey hill
with lizards warming in the black heather
that turned its back on the view over the bay
it was not their day for
the owl’s talons flew a slow broad circle
dragging the shadow of a doubt
about the boys
who swore it was a kestrel
then they ran arms outstretched like spitfires
in the comics that awaited them
in the armchair by the fireside
when they descended
the larks ascended
it was that sort of a hill
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