Separation

Did you hear the voice from inside a doll’s house?
It was left outside next doors front gate with a porcelain figure
abandoned from their loved ones – taken away
inside a white van- with chipped furniture – grey broken slate.
They once played inside a garden full of space and sun
now the grass is long and only dead sunflowers in a vase remain;
It was during the summer that they all had to walk away –
the wife carried the balloons as her daughter walked behind;

A bridge of trust between them had been split in two
they lived in separate rooms searching for a better future;
The daughter traveled the earth for the voices inside her doll’s house –
believing the answers to separation could be found somewhere inside;
Listening out attentively for that familiar voice from childhood
she had carried the key – determined to unlock their sadness one day
a visit to a second hand toy shop – Busy Sunday markets –
where hope is a child’s voice locked inside a cardboard hallway.

By Matt Duggan

Biography:

My work has appeared in A Restricted View from Under the Hedge, Ghost City Review, The Blue Nib, Rising Phoenix Review, The Journal, Osiris Poetry Journal, The Dawntreader, Into the Void, I have two new chapbooks available One Million Tiny Cuts (Clare Song Birds Publishing House) and A Season In Another World ( Thirty West Publishing House) my second full collection Woodworm will be published in Spring 2019 by Hedgehog Poetry Press.