Belinda Cooke
Second Marriage
For Brian
When my mother remarried
he took on more than he bargained for:
a perfectionist sizing the walls, replacing
wallpaper with tasteful paint—
including the drawers, putting hooks where
hooks were needed; moving years of random
debris, all the rough edges tidied with
tasteful beading, working his way through
unassuming, correcting and cursing
in his head—years of botch jobs:
the crooked walls of the kitchen extension
built by a cowboy my father felt sorry for.
Overnight the garden is a wash of begonias
baskets, pots, greenhouse overflowing with cuttings,
for here was a man who didn't need
taking in hand—a man with hobbies.
Yet often I imagine them hunched over a pint
or floating in the afterlife—one a gambler,
the other who liked a flutter—discussing the odds
who both knew a winner when they were on to one.
he took on more than he bargained for:
a perfectionist sizing the walls, replacing
wallpaper with tasteful paint—
including the drawers, putting hooks where
hooks were needed; moving years of random
debris, all the rough edges tidied with
tasteful beading, working his way through
unassuming, correcting and cursing
in his head—years of botch jobs:
the crooked walls of the kitchen extension
built by a cowboy my father felt sorry for.
Overnight the garden is a wash of begonias
baskets, pots, greenhouse overflowing with cuttings,
for here was a man who didn't need
taking in hand—a man with hobbies.
Yet often I imagine them hunched over a pint
or floating in the afterlife—one a gambler,
the other who liked a flutter—discussing the odds
who both knew a winner when they were on to one.
Page(s) 3
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