Bill Gave

Bill gave me garlic seeds right before
Joe asked for change. Later, Dan told how

he & his sister painted the concrete-block garage
with water as their grandfather drank whiskey

&-Vapo-Rub-laced coffee & straightened nails,
a batch of which filled a snuff tin Dan found

after the wake. On Princes Street, the brief sun
blinded me before I ducked into the stationer’s

for an A5 notebook, thence to the chemist’s
for a bottle of black-currant cordial, that miracle.