Chris Beckett
Homecoming
Some nights, I might as well have sacked the city
or clobbered a cyclops in the underground,
that’s how tired I am, trudging up
the garden path and putting my key in the door.
It’s only hours since I left this place
but things can change. I wonder, will my wife
remember me, and will she have staved off
the randy postman for another day?
My shabby work-clothes feel like a disguise,
will my kids say it’s a tramp walked in?
The dog looks up and thumps his happy tail
on the lino, so he knows who I am.
Just for that, I’d like to thank him in Wag,
taking the beat that he sets up with his tail
and working variations with my arm
that we can play together all night long!
And while he’s at it, he can teach me things
like how to bark and sniff out grubby places
where he buried a bone two years ago
or how to sniff an arse without offence.
Soon enough, my wife gives me a kiss,
and the kids go off to bed, protesting.
Nothing’s changed, but I still worry about
the postman, not so much his knocking or
his cyclops’ eye, but in the danger that
he represents of coming home to find
I’ve been away too long and no-one here
remembers me. Too bad. Against the day,
I hug my dog and he rewards me with
a few bars of his optimistic tail.
Page(s) 73
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