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
fathers
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 […]
Prayer for My Father as a Child - by
In the house where he sleeps
let my ears
be the leaves at the window.
My Father, Dreaming - by
The train glides through a world of frozen white,
/ low mists swirl and smudge the mirror of the Clyde,
/ Helensburgh stretches…
Personal History - by
for my son
/
/ O my heart is the unlucky heir of the ages
/ And my body is unwillingly the secret agent
/ Of my…
Weathering - by
I am old enough now for a tree
/ once planted, knee high, to have grown to be
/ twenty times me,
/
/ and to…
A Memory of Death - by
Nineteen fifty six was a momentous year,
/ The year of Suez…
The Sweet Silver Song - by
Rita, Keith and I are in the British Legion
/ to choose a menu for the wake.
/
/ We’re at the end of the…
A Tray of Frozen Songbirds - by
For our last meal together / my father takes out of the freezer / a tray of frozen songbirds.
Galileo’s Daughter – Suor Maria Celeste - by
Cold stars pin down the night that breathes
/ below the frothy veil of the Milky Way.
/ My father’s gaze is fixed…
In Memoriam - by
Private D. Sutherland
/ killed in action in the German trench, May 16, 1916,
/ and the others who died
/
/ So you were David’s…
From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - by
My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though their whorls held codes
/ of thirty years obstetric…