(Now complete).

I wasn’t keen at first

in truth I felt a little

press-ganged into it,

it was to be titled

‘Senors on Tour’

the three amigos

father and two sons

a boys’ birthday treat,

the first hurdle to negotiate

the collecting pens at the

Gatwick farm where

both exotic and rare breeds

collide in their herded and

hurriedly confused malaise,

we took the silver tube

to Bordeaux in clear skies

then drove on swiftly to

San Sebastián,

with a tad of imagination

it might have been Havana

colonnades and balustrades

adorning the Spanish old

colonial architecture,

San Sebastián, is a gem

an unpolished rare

gastronomic diamond,

wide promenades and

stately boulevards

cut by narrow alleys,

each one a hubbub of

avid grazing diners,

disciples, come to taste

pintxos, small pinches of

delicious food eaten al-fresco

outside the numerous

crowded manic bars,

each bite religious,

in truth this journey wasn’t

the discovery of enticing food

it was about finding out about

my sons, and the fine men

they have now become,

asking without needing to ask if

we as parents had done

a decent job, watching them

together, comfortable,

siblings and friends,

confidently leading the way

teaching their father

as one would a child

roles reversed, me now

the student, as it once was

with my own ageing father,

we talked, we laughed, we ate

and drank the local wines,

three men, the baton safely passed

 

© Graham Sherwood 10/24