Monday, 29 April 2013

A Poem for My Sister

From so painful a beginning
come endless forms
most beautiful
and most wonderful....

Slapped into softness
by a loving hand,
you're the girl who saved
a homeless cat,
its back like a time-trodden
council flat fag-pocked rug.

You nurtured it to health 
and it lived for ten more years.

You became the girl
who'd be the apple of
the world's eye: kind
to the elderly, talkative
to anybody. Beaten 
by bullies' jealousy:

your looks a poor veneer
for them to rag on,
but your soul - the thing
they so coveted and wanted
to spoil - remained pure
inside that airy-light grace of yours.

And now you're an auntie.
You'll be a good auntie.
You'll be a mother one day.
And you can prove your own
worth.

But what of me?
What do I do?

Well this is it.
Here's a little piece of me.
Take it. It's of no use
to me anymore.

You can't break a gift:
the gesture echoes on
for ever.

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