Bridget Joseph
Poem for my Father
(killed in a gliding accident)
After that fatal Sunday. . . and a funeral, my mother
wrenched us from our beds.
‘HE’S COME HOME. HE’S LANDED.’ she shouted
dragging us to the open-wide window.
An old birch, rooted, unmoved, shaded our crystal bird:
a glider stencilled on the lawn.
Cradled in the tree, the staring moon unleashed her tricks
in the still of night
the tracery of wings; the stroke of the tail. Slender. Suspended.
He was there. In the cockpit.
‘BACK AT LAST - BUT YOU’RE BLOODY LATE.’
The oven, left on to keep his supper warm;
blue pyjamas laid out.
We raced downstairs calling calling
ran barefoot over the lawn;
clawed at the ground, cold and drenched in the play
of shadow.
White-veiled, we scattered our tears
but only the kiss of his cinders was there:
his moon-life
slipped
through our fingers...
Page(s) 47
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