MEMORIES

MEMORIES

Night settled on the house.

Cooling embers in the grate shift

Cast a dying heat on socked feet

The rustle of the newspaper

Tells its own story

Recriminations and worries of the day

Put away

Father is reading the Evening Herald

 

Spread on linoleum worn thin

With children’s busy feet

Glasses perched precariously on the

Bridge of his nose

Below black bushy eyebrows

That tells the colour his iron grey hair

Was once

Before he had a brood and money worries

 

The rustling paper stills

The chair beside the fire

Grunts as it’s pushed back

Made safe

From the occasional spark

The winding of the clock sets the

Rising time for the winter day

That is to follow

 

His shadow falls across

The wall leading to the big bedroom

The moonlight casts its beam

Through the gap where the

Curtains don’t meet

His hand softly draws up

The blankets over shoulders

Dreaming of play in green fields

 

His refrain meets my ears

God bless –

Sleep tight till morning comes

The loose brass door knob shivers

As it’s pulled against the stealth of night

Soon, the faint strip of light

Is extinguished as he makes his way

To his own bed beside my mother