Sunshine, Dog Hair and Helium

Summer in a small Welsh market town

and the dog was moulting

and Lily would tuck some of his hair

between the pages of her library books

before she took them back.

She saw me watching her and said,

“It’s ok, he likes to go to the library

but he’s not allowed in any more

so I’m smuggling him in this way.”

Later that same day

coming out of Woolworths

I bought my four-year-old a helium balloon,

silver and purple, and told him

about the helium mines in California

and he looked at me in the same way

I’d looked at Lily.

Published on April 17th 2023