Onisha

Smoking a cigarette, a lover's old face appears, fulsome not lonely yet, geese rise and sail, haunt the sky like deer, I knew her once in jail, blankets around us yet, she always cheered, wide as a fishing net, colours of the early rails, she’d let no-one near, someone who never failed, she absorbed uncertain dread, whatever brought us here, made it safe to tread, a woman who contained, flames passage into fear, shared jokes on trains, then disappeared.