By We were in the canopy among the owls
amid limes and sycamores at the top
of a three storey Victorian semi.
Ours was the children’s floor and the nannies’.
We furnished, decorated, carpeted.
We had our books, our prints, our piano –
and our child quickening in your belly.
I would feel it kick. Our neighbour one floor down
ran off with an actress. His little boy
rattled his play pen all day. In the winter,
mould grew in the bathroom, the gas boiler
shed bits of metal, ships on the river
blasted their fog horns. She was born in May.
Her cot was under a skylight. Leaves
stroked the glass, sunlight dappling her loveliness.
bellyboilercanopychildcotgaslimeslovelinessMaymetalmouldnanniesowlspianoprintsquickeningservantsskylightsycamoreVictorianwinter
Howard Gardener
May 20, 2016Direct and simple language; beautiful imagery.
Ian Craine
May 20, 2016This is a nice poem, David. The last two lines are beautiful.
Sarah Selzer
May 21, 2016Yes, beautiful imagery and a shame I don’t have memories of the flat but this is the next best thing – description and storytelling at its best! xxxx
Catherine Reynolds
May 21, 2016I love the way you have set the scene and your attention to detail. Painting with words.
Theresa Brady
May 21, 2016David, the wonderful imagery you create – ‘I am there’ in every single one! A great gift and a pleasure to read and get into the moment.
Alan Horne
May 23, 2016As with Soweto 2010, I very much like the way the images are placed together and built up, although this is a more obviously personal poem. The way the baby shifts from “it” to “she” is great, and there’s a surreal touch in the mould and the boiler. It’s a lovely poem, David.
John Huddart
May 24, 2016Not often we get to hear from the subject of a poem. Wickedly remembering the commentary of the Dish of the Day on itself in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. This is as lyrical as that was funny!
Especially liked the feel of the setting beneath the canopy of the trees – emphasising the feeling that the house itself is a tree with human nests within it. Being the human world, it has the less successful family downstairs to contend with, which is both saddening, and a foil to the happiness above.
Lovely piece!