Fairground Music

The fair had come. It must have been Whitsun.
They’d camp every year at the end of our yard -
you could hear the screams and the grinding of the rides
and a noise like whizz-bangs from the house.
Tom had taken Hazel off to get lost in it
so I had the kitchen to myself. Which was larger,
somehow, and scented, and lonely. I was baking scones.

It was Esther gave me the shock - hello Doris -
standing in the door-frame like a ghost.
She’s been riding all afternoon: the dipper,
the dodgems, the giant wheel. You could tell
she was five months gone just by looking at her.
She needed the privy - it would save me the walk -
and I said alright because she was family.

She was out there an age. I had the scones in the oven
...