Mother’s girl

 

 

Leaving a litter of lies behind him,

my father would syphon petrol from a neighbour’s car 

like sucking venom from  snake bite,

and disappear in his mini pick -up

into the orchards and fields of his office.

 

Mother was determined to exorcise

the sins of my father from me ,

so caught stealing chocolate biscuits

my legs stung with slaps,

detected lying about the lost PE kit ….

I was invisible to her for the rest of the day.

 

But when cancer caged my father;

she and I kept vigil either side his breathing cadaver,

praying he would give up…..

After his death , a nightly tap on my bedroom door,

“Can I sleep in here tonight?”

 

And when she brushed my childhood aside

to explain the facts of our life:

the ramshackle house un-saleable

after father’s cut and shut renovations,

savings that rattled like a near empty piggy bank,

I inwardly strutted with pride.