KEITH FORDYCE AND A PHOTO OF MY PARENTS

A first kiss on the battlements

with your daughter's friend

while everyone drank downstairs

and Harry Worth for company

as my father hopped around

taking snapshots of actors.

 

You interviewed celebrities,

hosted music shows and quizzes

but looked better on screen

than in the cold flesh of reality

pottering unshaven, hung-over

on the flip side of fame's razzle.

 

Now unearthed, old photos

capture you and my parents,

sleek-haired, glamorous as stars

but lacking necessary talent,

all the same, it's folk like you

who shaped their dreams.

 

Last week, an online search

revealed your death some time ago

and I can't find the country club

these days on modern maps.

It was another world back then,

now vanished in a cloud of years.

 

Sarasvati 057, May 2020. Editor Dawn Bauling.