Reefs forming in the grain

chewed up by these hungry years.

Her heels crushing;

little petals into a brown bough,

Speckled like a tumbled shell,

From the handprints of many generations.

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Glossy lacquer,

smeared on dark lips in steady

paintbrush strokes

Cold moulded clean-cut strips

clacking unerringly as her heels

skip across the artificial wood.