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Half-term

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All five at home and me
dividing my time, this way and that
trying to love the teenager with that
same tenderness I felt when she was two

I see her now sitting cross-legged
gazing at the asian children’s saris
the only white girl in the playgroup

Now rave music blasts me from her room
too soon she’ll be leaving home,
dressed in black, with bronzed hair,
and crying for her brother

She, like me, is pulled so many ways,
ignoring one is taking notice of another,
we try to balance out the living and the dead
knowing our lives hang by a gossamer thread.

◄ EARLY MORNING INNER CITY

Between ►

Comments

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keith jeffries

Mon 5th Sep 2022 18:01

John,
A poem of relationships at various stages but the last line caught my attention and somehow summed up all what had gone before. Life is so very tenuous and we should learn to grasp every moment as if it were our last especially with those we love. How I would love to turn back the clock and spend more time with my father. Thank you for this
Keith

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