Blister of a Day

We didn’t know about malignant melanoma then
It was just a knowing nod at an Uncles funeral
The C word

I was worried. Ozone holes. Ultra violet 
short rays crackling his skin scared by lathe swarf
Brittle dry from cocktails of milky coolants

All the Red Barrel bellies swilled with the seaweed
Splayed in carefree self contemplation
Unchained from profit and production

We nagged him to the ice cream van
His act of self sacrifice second only to war rationing
The nuclear strawberry syrup a personal triumph

The stray had waited all day
One of the cones gasped upside down in the sand
I’m not bloody doing that again

And we knew Dad wouldn’t

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