The ballet stage was not a place for me
Late at night this child not too bright,
Stepped out
All forlorn
In long nightdress
Frilled all round
With red candlestick
And there on stage
At Sadlers Wells
She did propose
To dance composed
But having not an ounce
Of spatial sensé
Missed the placement of her feet
And at the end
As the audience clapped
She curtsied with her back
So none could see
This shining star
With her
candlestick
A flame
Just
The long and flowing hair
Which got her further
By far
This beautiful
Falling flower.

Love Mary ***

Wide lapels and herringbone
Was what my parents wore
A few years following
My brother and I were born,
Married in a registry office
My Aunty and mother in hats
No flowery additions
Their love was that.

In my father's pocket
A folded handkerchief
Mother held a handbag
An umbrella just in case.

I never got to try it on
That grey suit of my mum's
Lived in the few photographs
After they were gone
The bungalow was sold
My brother took the suits
And dispensed of their souls.


In remembrance of my dearest parents.
Love Mary their daughter ***

Travelling by foot in whatever weather
I took to walking the gardens' route,
With single lens reflex camera
Still able to take the sort of pictures
That stop the eyes from wandering.
Photos in black and white
Where contrasts given a subtlety
Slowly revealing the depths
Of the familiar.

And into the park
Where rain, recently fallen,
Drenches the lens with jewels
Dropping from tree and cloud,
Sporadically,
Catching the light
With its rainbow spectrum
And collecting moments
Of nature's splendour
Into unnoticed places.

Love Mary ***

Holding the Summer you would play
In the close like a horseshoe
Where garden gates met
And a garage stood beside a hedge.
After four when school had closed
There you all gathered in this close.


Love Mary

We fell about laughing as if it was yesterday
Scraping the tea stains from the sink
With glorious soapy bubbles.
Handsome returned from his park walk
Holding his diary like a black bible
Going over the weather details
As any diligent meteorologist.
By now the sun had risen to its peak
Giving out heat to two blind mice
Sitting together on a waste bin
Unable to sing as their batteries
Now lay useless inside.
Dinner was salad and fish
Followed by a bag of chocolate raisins
In hard to open cellophane.
It had not always been like this
But now only the essentials
Of posting a letter
Took over time .


Love Mary xxxx

A lane that connected two extreme differences
One a shabby, littered covered entrance
Where scraps of rope doodled round lampposts
And trolley carts became abandoned aliens
With twirly wheels from mechano sets.
The smell of discarded waste and ash
Made one hurry forth pushing bicycles
Starting the downhill roll leading to Lyles Lane


Covered in a green canopy of trees
The air fleeing past as we gathered speed
Up the steeps and along the flats
Feeling the freedom of escapism
The lane joined the outskirts of the town
With the sublimity of the countryside.
Pedalling on six bicycles.


Love Mary

A girl went to a party dressed as a fairy.
At sixteen what was she thinking?
Her wings made from nylon stockings
With cut off bottoms and sequin pins
Sewn on in a succession of rings.

All glittery bold in green tights
And hair curled with peroxide highlights,
She really must have looked a treat;
As the powder pink began to sink
And black mascara dribbled ink.

The fairy dissolved in tears and ice,
Ran screaming from the party house
Down the street in a tatty torn gown,
Until she was found and brought around.
This fairy needed to learn to fly.

Love Mary x

So you think your beautiful
He told you so,
But you never believed these words
Oh no.
He said you were intelligent too,
But you had few words to show it through,
And by his side you looked so small
And age gap six years or more,
But in the dark no one could see
And thé differences didn't matter
Just you and me.

Love Mary ***

I was your bridesmaid but don't know you now
In orange satin gown with circles that went round
I stood near your side in your white wedding dress
But I never knew you in that church where flowers rest.

Though only a child in lace edged gloves
Carrying a white bible given with love
And wearing the crucifix a gift with shoes
I stood and waited for the lady I never knew.


I still have one glove made of lace
And the leather bible in its plastic case
But I never knew you and soon I'll be gone
Thank you for letting me share your song.

My mother sat by her father's bed
As he took his last breath
It had taken all day
He had listened to the news at one
Then slowly gone down hill.

They called the local doctor
To give some relief
But he was out on a house call
Attending another ones grief
So hand in hand he left this land.

After the funeral at the top of the hill
In Christchurch graveyard
He was laid to rest, this being his will.
My mother, a person of wisdom and myth
Rang me each day to tell of her progress.

Before he left, her father had said
That if he could he would try
To let her know he had arrived
So everyday whilst on her walks
She looked for a sign that talked.

And then one day after quite a while
Found a lamppost and near the ground
Were written the words ,"I  am".
And this was enough to put her trust
In a life ever after and a father she loved.

Love Mary **

And the trouble I'm in
But oh the beauty it brought me
In between
And I dance in my dresses as loud as could be
And bounce off garden walls
Happy in the breeze.
Collect pretty buttons and put them in a tin.
I've always been crazy
Did I ever win?

Swayed in the arms of another
Stamping the floor of my dreams
Carried the flowers
Picked by a stream
Pink, blue and white
From the groves of delight.
But I've always been crazy
And that's how it ends.

Love Mary x

We never matched it together
But your waves were curly and grey
I flowed with golden heirlooms
******* in bunches that day
And we walked so slowly the road
Where we lived
The home that you made me
Was ever so good
Full of the love
Any child could need
Oh Mummy I miss
Your sweet perfume .

Love Mary **

Oh my pretty one you sit so still
Not a wiggle or a shuffle
Even in the chill
Your coat is red
Hat white fur
My baby bunnykins
The miles we saw.

Love Mary x