Thick meat

we sat down to it
for breakfast
chops or sausages
bacon and sweetbreads
even brains

Dad brought it home
from the Works
in his Gladstone bag
bloodstained
brown parcels you’d
pay a fortune for now

surprising we’re all
still around
approaching eighty
only one
on a walking stick
only one on crazy pills

bred and fed
to be warriors
we turned out
teachers and a minister
nothing worse

Tony Beyer

Tony Beyer writes in Taranaki. Recent poems have appeared online in US journals Hamilton Stone Review and Mudlark, and in Cordite (Australia).