Poem in Fendalton

For Tom, my grandpa

 

I thought of you walking

through Fendalton

where the well-to-do

peer through suburban dreams

their lawns and driveways

spilling onto the footpaths

and I pictured you inside

the house, Straven Road,

with your daughter

off to another football match.

 

I carried your thought with me

through Hagley Park

and cast it like a stone

into the summer-rich shadow

showering the Avon

with mid-morning light

and as the ducks

nuzzled the water

I watched you

sink deeper and deeper

from my sight

like the man I never knew.

 

December 1994

 

Poem © Mark Pirie 2016