Cathy Bolton
Dancing with Dad
He was the rock I climbed to safety
from shark infested carpets,
the elephant I rode proud
through tiger-licking jungle.
A comic-strip hero in hard-hat
and donkey jacket, he entrusted me
with the magic of spirit-levels,
slide-rules, protractors.
He'd let me stick pins in the
Littlewoods coupon, shout me
a 5p win on a I00-I
certain fall at Becher's Brook.
No matter how long the day,
dark the night, he never refused
to dance me round the kitchen
on his steel-capped boots.
Yet somehow we fell out of step.
I started to dread his good moods,
those body-swaying songs: Tie a Yellow Ribbon,
Waterloo, You won't find another Fool.
They starched my limbs but made his flow.
Supple as a Pan's People scarf,
he wafted round the living room
in broad day-light, oblivious
to passing friends and neighbours.
I dreamt of net curtains, a trap-door
beneath the sheep-skin rug;
became a limpet on the settee
when he shuffled close.
His outstretched arm invited
with a caution, You'll have to dance
with me at your wedding. I armed myself
with headphones, Black Sabbath tapes;
resolved to climb the highest shelf.
magazine list
- Features
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- 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