Tragic Timing -- Revised Poem

Thought I'd post revised poem to show how comments were incorporated. The poem is improved, I think, showing how incredibly useful Marion's writing forum is.
(Changes in red)


Tragic Timing, Belfast 1984

i.m. My aunt, Margaret Whyte



Two days after Christmas I arrived

too early and found you unprepared.

You cupped a hand over your mouth

to hide your bare gums and fled the room.

Beside your false teeth, I planted

a one-pound box of Cadbury's Milk Tray.



Four months after Christmas he arrived

too late. Inside, preparing supper

for five of your nine children, you heard

insistent pressing on the buzzer.

You set the sausages to one side

and pulled the pan away from the heat.



You opened the door, surprised to find

a sports bag bulge on a sill above

the milk bottles and the fuchsia,

and a youthful constable, grim faced –

panicked eyes, mouth half opened, white teeth

framed by trembling lips – ready to speak.



Finger pointing, he issued warning:

Missus, that's a suspicious package. –

His last words lost in an orange flash

and shocking rush of devastating air;

both lives and meaning terminating

in the futility of the primed full stop.