Family Tales Recited

ANTI CLIMAX I woke, icicles frozen to the window pane melting as I looked out; Snow, drifts deep on the lawn. Still crunching my toast chilled toes wriggled into damp wellies, school cap askew, I slam the back door- Sinking to my bare knees, I stumble to the gate. Along the school lane, boys snowballed shouted and slid. At Auntie’s house I stopped, my eyes seeking the upstairs window- In that room, last night, another sister new born, lay. Encore, no fraternal frolics for’ dained, for me to play STRONG & SILENT Fathers of that era did not hug or touch or intimate their love. He was the same Did he love us, we his kin, his blood-seed. He did not say, yet I believe he did. He was a provider, for sure. A taste for beer, never dissolute and he smoke as most working folk, did then. An adept gardener, his vegetables supplemented our meagre rationed diet. Did he care, he never said, I’m sure he did. What made him tick, deep down, I mean where only introspectives, types like me will sometimes dig. It is easy, so easy to theorise. His generation, strong and silent, did not discuss such things,especially with his son, such things were never done. Maybe..perhaps with Mum. Feelings were not shared but held back, within. A reservoir of emotions controlled, withheld until death shatters the dam.Is that why I cried so, the day he died and still I wonder.. did I cry for me, or was it for him Listen to me read these poems on youtube under name of ichthyschiro