Momento

When we were young,

You’d sit us down

And tell us wonders

Of love and loss,

Surviving two wars;

Meeting Gran by chance

In the days when wireless reigned,

And sail still ruled

The waves you’d swum

Since childhood.

You spoke an age

In photographs

Distilled from memory.

I glimpsed you last

As I boarded the ferry home

(before they closed it down):

An arm,

Enigmatically raised

In a brief salute.

Ignoring the final click

Of the shutter.

Pater Familias

You keep popping up

In the strangest places.

Walking into a room,

Your face appears,

Smiling the same odd way.

Real or not,

I know you’re there.

My shadow everywhere

Bumps into yours.

I hear your voice

Through doors

Long closed.

Even the dark

Assumes your shape;

You’re here so much,

The monsters under the bed

Have been complaining.