22/12/12 @ 21:21 pm

Out on a winter walk one day
you solemnly put an acorn into my hand.
Something in my head whispered
"Keep it safe
and he'll be safe".
I kept it to this day.

Year one.
One candle on my cake,
burned into my mind's eye forever.
You took a photograph
to keep me in the picture.

Year four.
My sister arrived in the world. 
You took me to feed the swans.
Back home
she greeted us with screams.
I fled, covering my ears.

Year thirteen.
Mother told me the facts of life.
You kept well out of it.

Year nineteen,
A disco at the end of a long, quiet road.
You always drove me safely there and back.
You were judge and jury
of all boyfriends.

Year twenty three.
You gave me away
to the best boyfriend of all.

A montage of eras
replay in the bright lens of memory
till the year of the walk
and the acorn.

And I kept it safe
so you'd be safe,
only now it looks cracked and old;
not quite like an acorn

and you are not quite like you.


............................................

http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/
http://www.alz.org/