Father Figures

father figures I never knew my father well as he was not at home I think it had something to do with other women mother divorced him and said he was a butterfly. I could not picture him as a colourful insect in the glade instead, I made him into a swashbuckling hero. A new man moved into our life, and I didn’t like him he smelled of smoked sardines, telling me what to do. I was ten years old and decided to leave home with two apples and a boiled egg, I left slamming the door behind me; the evening dark and cold My mother’s friend was sarcastic when I returned looked at his watch two hours had gone. In later years I wrote a series of poems about “Alfred” the pianist who denied he was my father and realized how important it was for a little boy to have a father figure when growing up.