Category: Poetry
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A Cuppa for Mum
Like millions of other people, I became a carer for my mother as she died of dementia. She had left home in her teens to join the women’s Royal Navy (Wrens). She learned to rally drive, to drive defensively. She brought up her sons alone after the death of my father. I will make you…
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Sounds Like a Mother’s Woes
A poem about a child. Hushed up in a few seconds to corral sounds The little ones she made at first. Spoken-splatters from her tongue Inside me first then on and on. And all the music in the world (sounds like a mother’s woes) Could not have made your toes Change my mind like they…
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At The Funeral
My daughter, Zuzu, died in 2004 at our home in Sydney. Her funeral was attended by more than one hundred people — not too shabby for a little girl who was unable to talk, walk or eat unaided but who could smile to light up a stadium. Every day I think about her. Some days…
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The Summer of ’76
1976 was a hot summer. Hot and teenaged for me. My father died that year. Punk began to happen in rural England. I spent a lot of time in the water meadows. We all went down to the water meadows, Together in the bunk-off school sunshine, When diving was dangerous When the cows scarfed up…
