Poem

Hunting through the archives on a data stick – came across this poem I wrote a few years ago.

Slip sideways into my soul almost unnoticed the world’s cry

A t-shirt thin from years of wear and washing.

Defeat sagging his shoulders.

Fat (shameful, embarrassing): no-one wants to be fat.

Sitting on the bench with his small son on his knee, his hands gentle around the child,

holding him safe,

his face held tenderly against his boy’s head;

both of them looking towards the horizon, across the inscrutable beauty of the ocean, its body of unfathomable mystery defying imagination.

At the moment I pass, the wind carries his words to me; the wisdom of his generation, father to son, the answer of his soul

for his child’s questioning. 

‘Dunno,’ he is saying.

Slip sideways into my soul almost unnoticed the world’s cry

Another day, cold and tempestuous,

the clouds tossing and the spray flying;

at the roadside,

horrified

watching the bus ticket

the wind snatched out of his hand

blow through the relentless traffic

across the road and away.

Beyond dignity, reduced to childhood

 ‘It’s not fair!’ he cries out and stamps in rage; tries desperately to thread the indifferent stream of cars and chase the wind for its prey.

Slip sideways into my soul almost unnoticed the world’s cry

Bleak morning of deluging rain

Everyone is shivering, faces like masks

As the hearse draws up

One teenage girl clutches crazy

Burying her face in his shoulder, crying out

 ‘I can’t do this! I can’t! I can’t do this!’

The anguish wraps tightly round us

like barbed wire.

Slip sideways into my soul almost unnoticed the world’s cry

I think maybe they do not feel

your quiet eyes beholding,

your listening to the voice of the world;

intent,

understanding,

taking them seriously.

Slip sideways into my soul almost unnoticed the world’s cry

© Penelope Wilcock 2008