When I used to shake a branch to douse your pram with blossom, was it a kind of caim, a ring of blessednessI tried to wrap you in? You chuckledtill your white curls shivered. Or when I lifted you right up close to the fragrant rose, was it to inoculate against all that iscrass and coarse? You pulledand crushed […]
My boy is painting outer space,
and steadies his brush-tip to trace
the comets, planets, moon and sun
and all the circuitry they run…
Whatever the difference is, it all began
the day we woke up face-to-face like lovers
and his four-day-old smile dawned on him again…
On the earth a stretched second
/ you stood, balanced. Gravity
/
/ glued dolly shoes. You wore
/ the sky on your head, jauntily,
/
/ light blue paper…
Me, an’ Jean, an’ the bairn;
/ The wee lad spierin’ an’ starin’;
/ Daunderin’ quiet an’ douce-like doun
/ The Menin road into Ypres toun.
/ ‘Did…
My bonnie bairn
/ My bonnie bairn
/ My bonnie bairn, there’s blessin’s in yer e’e.
/ An’ O ye hae a dainty mou’, dainty mou’,…
