At the end of the pier you could look out to sea
Listening to the swell flap on the rusty cast iron
Of geometrical supports.
Barnacles clung, sealed like gold nuggets
And in the distance the slow **** of a tanker.

The wind would whisk around the terminal
Throwing hair to the sky
Floating chandelier skirts tipped
Revealing best underwear.
And the clock sang its time to the birds.

Over both sides were fishing rod rows
Their owners sitting on canvas stools
Above seagulls nibbled the air for food scraps
And beneath strong swimmers bobbed
Watching children skim pebbles in the waves.

Love Mary xxxx

In the front bedroom
I have been for years
Watching the birds
In the Sycamore tree.

Love Mary

We watched the black and white movies
The old ones from the thirties
With Gregory Peck.
His favourite was
‘South Pacific’
And he would whistle
‘Some Enchanted Evening’
As he came home up the lanes.

Love Mary

So we let them fall out
You and me by the fire
From jumble sales
I’d been riding my bike
Rummaging through
Viewing everything that glittered
Tipped over, scrambled, opened closed boxes
Hot it was with coffee and teas served at three o’clock.
How we loved these times
Surprises from other’s shelves.

Love Mum

He was little rosy faced chubby child
On a green cushion in the garden
Near the new central heating chimney pipe
Waiting its silver form to be installed.

Your romper was an altered smoked dress
Its puff sleeves made you look like a girl
Banging a rubber toy you smiled in the sunshine
Your dad sat down near you, hopeful.

He disliked workman and home improvements
And the roses grew their heads haphazardly
Needed last years pruning to give shape
Tea I brought in mugs to this moment in time.

Love Mary

The hall made for singing on Sundays
Filled with pink leggings and tutu skirts
And an old piano in the corner
Watching a flurry of signets point.

Late to start, us being poor, but anyway
You wanted to try and both were good
I wanted a ballerina in the family
And the hour passed fast and costly.

When one of you, after university, took up
A position at Sadlers Wells in the offices,
You got cheap tickets and we all went
At Christmas, sitting in the stalls, aglow.

Love Mary x

The B road got progressively steeper until no more
Could the bike seat carry you.
Stopping by the edge of the road at evening
We all decided walking was needed to get home.

With the bottom of your hair bending a curl
And green homemade dress we’d cycled from Staines
Tiredness suddenly overcame high spirits
So the five bikes pushed slowly along.

We took to cycling as a mode of movement
Free and fast the ways belonged to us and time
Home was food, drink and bed, memories
Stored in our legs and head for forty years.

love Mary

In a hot room overlooking the football ground
I felt the pains filling my brain in reams
The sky held to blue all day and the sheets white
Then I pushed to see and someone ran the corridor.

The silver lift doors swung open and we separate
As your name I bounced off every wall, I shout,
‘Deliverance without my gentle shepherd, my love’.
You peep through green doors to a daughter born.

Love Mary

Mum dreamed she was an intellectual
Well read and well versed
Mum dreamed she was a lady
Her behaviour never adversed
Mum dreamed she was beautiful
The prettier of the two.

She dreamed she married her sweet heart
But that could never come true
She dreamed things always got better
But they did not as the years passed
She dreamed there was an afterlife
But at the end that did not last.

Mum wanted children to be by her side
Those she did get, Richard and I
Mum wanted to be loved
More than anything
She found it in a gentle man
That he did bring.

Mum thought of her rose - garden
The one up the hill
The one she built from optimism
I know she sits there still.

Love Mary. **

Running fingers through nutmeg hair
You claimed the silky tree bark
Black ribbons in a sea of leaves
And a brown checked school dress.

Love Mummy x

I will be there for you in the days that follow
Do not worry, my son
For when you take each child's hand
You're holding mine too.


We'll walk in the park in the Summer
I will be there, my son
Life is a repeating pattern of smiles
I am always your Mum.

Love Mum x

This girl
Came to visit me
As often as could be
First in her mother's arms
Then on buggy wheels;
She played with the dolls' house
Spread out across the floor
What more could a Grandma want
Than a friend to play with the toys.


Love Grandma to Daisy ***

Under a hermit sky you sit
The roof has fallen in and the poem
Begins.
But your not reading the quest
Answering only questions
You like the best.
There's a boy crossing a river
So you decide to fall in
Chasing the dog as he swims.

On the river bank someone calls
And for a minute
You decide to revise.
Taking a pencil to write some lines
Like 'I'm extremely bored'.
You attempt to comply
But all the words flake
On the black and white screen.
At least you don't have Fakebook.

Love Grandma