Oscar

I thank the heavens for this darling boy who's given my life new purpose, joy. This little scrap of humanity, who sits on my knee and expounds my vanity and completely disarms me with his 'Hello, granddad' and infuriates when he misbehaves then saves himself with a smile and a hug and I give a shrug and beckon him near, this grandson so dear, who melts my heart and leaves a gap when we are apart. Who angers and pleases in equal measure yet gives my memory so much to treasure. Our knowing looks, the story books, the afternoon naps, the selfie snaps. The rough and tumble when you don't really want to, but you oblige for the smiles and the giggles and then you collapse in a heap of wriggles and try to be straight - laced whilst he probes your face to see how your eye works and plays with your lip then, off he'll skip on some other ploy and ask you to play with some other toy or else bombard you with imaginary snowballs, until, tuckered out, sleep finally calls and he kisses goodnight and lazily crawls into the land of dreams and childhood schemes and I'm left, bereft, aching and sore and anticipating more in the dawns early light.