Alan Perry
Outing
I chauffeur my father
to the funeral of a friend,
not knowing the corpse
from Adam.
This January afternoon
it's started to rain
as it surely must
at all good funerals.
We are the first here
catching the mourners
for the funeral before
and my father wonders
why he doesn't know
anyone. We listen
to a vicar comforting
complete strangers.
Then, one by one, all
his old workmates arrive:
there are smiles all round
and banter and swapping
of memories: who's
alive and who's dead or
dying and soon I can tell
he's glad he's come.
The chapel is packed,
the singing beautiful and
suddenly I wonder why
I'm fighting back tears for
someone I've never known.
The deceased descends and
we all file out again
still to the beat of the rain
and he waves goodbye
to all his old butties.
He won't let me fetch
the car, but hobbles
along on his sticks
refusing an umbrella.
He's 88 and alone
with not many more funerals
to go and, though
he jokes in the car park
that it's hardly worth
him going home
he's bright as
a pin and sharp as
a button and today
he's enjoyed himself.
to the funeral of a friend,
not knowing the corpse
from Adam.
This January afternoon
it's started to rain
as it surely must
at all good funerals.
We are the first here
catching the mourners
for the funeral before
and my father wonders
why he doesn't know
anyone. We listen
to a vicar comforting
complete strangers.
Then, one by one, all
his old workmates arrive:
there are smiles all round
and banter and swapping
of memories: who's
alive and who's dead or
dying and soon I can tell
he's glad he's come.
The chapel is packed,
the singing beautiful and
suddenly I wonder why
I'm fighting back tears for
someone I've never known.
The deceased descends and
we all file out again
still to the beat of the rain
and he waves goodbye
to all his old butties.
He won't let me fetch
the car, but hobbles
along on his sticks
refusing an umbrella.
He's 88 and alone
with not many more funerals
to go and, though
he jokes in the car park
that it's hardly worth
him going home
he's bright as
a pin and sharp as
a button and today
he's enjoyed himself.
Page(s) 52-54
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The