Fear of Letter Boxes

 

 

She listens all morning for the letter box’s warning

that causes her pen to skid across a page.

Careers downstairs scanning the door mat,

gingerly pokes a pile of junk mail where buff

envelopes often lurk like adders under compost.

Opens as if defusing a bomb.

Hospital appointments are welcome as negative test results.

Shreds Reader’s Digest’s practical joke.

Down grading her fear to code orange at a drift of white letters,

knows even these are not always innocent as they appear.

Sometimes, the friendly face of familiar handwriting

or an invitation surprising as a modest lottery win.

Still no ‘all clear’ by 12 o’ clock,

she peeps from curtains,

catching the post man passing her gate,

exhales as if missed out of a house to house search.

Sundays, strikes and snow, she is a school kid

whose bully has been excluded for a few days.