Join me in the den by Rowan Lyster

Join me in the den

Branches propped against each other,

so close the light can only whisper,

or a blanket fort with cushions to sit on

and a mini-fridge of Smirnoff Ice. In here

it is warmer than you would think.

In here I’ve collected memories of us

on the phone, taking turns to read out

chat up lines from a plain-text website,

ranking all the boys in our year,

claiming again and again to be grownups.

Shrieks of laughter and the slow melt

of two tubs of Ben & Jerry’s Half-Baked;

nothing but that.

The older boy has not hurt you yet,

your brother is safe and will live to eighty,

and your son is barely a thought -

only a plump idea twelve years ahead,

and he will be well this time, I promise.

Rowan Lyster is a Bristol-based poet and physiotherapist. Her poems have appeared widely in journals and her debut pamphlet, We Will Be Fine, is published by Little Betty. She is part of the Southbank Centre New Poets' Collective 2022-23 and can be found online at https://linktr.ee/rowanlyster.