bird dog
he loved dogs
but after his lurcher died
with a cold eye
my father shifted his affection
to the magpies in the garden.
he fed them daily, like dogs,
and discerned their characters,
all the while confident that his death, when it came,
would not trouble them
in the slightest.
*****
Use hammer to break glass
so, I said
we have around 30 left
30? he laughed...
I'd be happy to reach 70,
10 more will do me.
and I thought: 10? Christ!
if it's only 10
surely this is an emergency
you can break a lot of glass
in 10 years, he said
Steve Shepherd writes poems and takes photographs. He used to make radio programmes, mostly jazz.
Comments