The Night Watch - by
Shhh, what did you want to show
that couldn’t wait until the morning?
Was it the moon – because I see it:
the first good bead on a one-bead string
childhood
Slow Reader - by
He can make a sculptureand fabulous machines, invent games, tell jokes,give solemn, adult advice-but he is slow to read.When I take him on my kneewith his Ladybird bookhe gazes into the air,sighing and shaking his headlike an old manwho knows the mountainsare impassable. He toys with words,letting them go coldas gristly meat,until I relentand let […]
My Heart Leaps Up - by
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pansSlid from the kitchen shelf;My mother’s countenanceCould not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wristWas battered on one knuckle;At every step you missedMy right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time […]
In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - by
You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.
11:00: Baldovan - by
Base Camp. Horizontal sleet. Two small boys
have raised the steel flag of the 20 terminus:
me and Ross Mudie are going up the Hilltown
for the first time ever on our own.
Revelation - by
I remember once being shown the black bull
when a child at the farm for eggs and milk
The Plinky-Boat - by
Something near to true
night-darkness. The children
are playing the Plinky-Boat –
a xylophone made
from a reclaimed yoal
Rounders in the Dark - by
The circle shrinks
/ as players one by one
/ are summoned by a shout;
/ till in the gloaming none remains
/ to catch the…
Left Behind - by
I cannot bring myself to burst your everywhere balloons
/ That cheer our rooms, mementos of delight,
/ Nor bundle bears, deep buried in…
Celestial Planisphere, a glow-in-the-dark jigsaw for ages 7+ - by
That box held the moon and the sun and more,
a stash that made you superheroic,
expert on constellations and the zodiac,
the universe studding your bedroom floor.
no angel - by
(After Judge Ian Starforth Hill described a nine year old rape victim
/ as “not exactly an angel herself” and gave…