The Other Side of Yesterday

for Dad

Just the other side of yesterday
the heat of a Cornish beach
caused you to roll your trousers
to your knees and walk beside me
through flowing waters.

Letting go of my child-sized hand
must have been the hardest thing.

Watchfulness half-hidden
in oak brown eyes,
not wanting to withhold fun
but, like a trapeze artist’s net,
waiting in readiness.

Just the other side of yesterday
you smiled as I closed the door
on a life you wanted forever,
but wider worlds call every child.

Amidst the guests your face shone,
one ambition of yours attained –
my hand safely in another’s –
and how you smiled to hear
I could visit the sea every day.

Just the other side of yesterday
your bone-thin hand stroked mine.
grey-rimmed eyes already sinking
into the other side of time.

© Adele Cosgrove-Bray, 2007.

Comments

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