I like that Susi ... clever and witty ....

Not all hauntings are unpleasant or even unwelcome - my dead father was 'resurrected' nightly by my mother's wistful reminiscences.

  **REMEMBERING A MAN

I remember my mother
Remembering a man
who hullaballooed down hairpin-riddled hills
amid the war-free carefree days
in a red and rollicking rooster of a car
to the singing swaggering inns of peacetime Wales

Reminiscing … ah, yes:
Good night, God bless

I remember my mother
remembering a man
who framed a kiss-me face in miner’s hands
while fear-strained peace hopes upped and fled
and, tough and tender, wooed and wed his willing lass
in cool and calm cathedral mountain ferns

Reminiscing … Mmm, yes:
Good night, God bless.

I remember my mother
remembering a man
who, smiling, shoulder slung a sailor’s sack of hope
in the proud and patriotic duty days
to test his pit-man’s mettle on the sour and sullen seas,
and save his wife, his Wales****, his world.

Reminiscing … oh, yes:
Good night, God bless

I remember my mother
Remembering a man
who woke fear-slimed and shrieking from convoy dreams
in pitiful shore-leaves meant to heal
and in the screams of his sick and once-seen son
heard echoes of shipmates bright ablaze in icy seas.

Reminiscing … hell, yes:
Good night, God bless

I remember my mother
Remembering a man
who eased his guard in safe and sheltered sunlit seas
Caribbean cradled close by the shore;
who, laughing, failed to spot the lethal sharking shape
which smashed and shattered peace and skin and bone.**

**Reminiscing … finally, yes:
Good night, God bless.

I remember my mother
remembering a man:**

And I shall learn to love this man

Though speaking ‘father’ snags my tongue

And all his substance but a mother’s memory gift

Seeking a son’s echoes among the post-war prayers:

** **

Her imagery is my legacy, nevertheless:
Good night, God bless.

 

 

.........................................................

.... my father was one 'ghost' worth remembering, as is my late mother now....

Mike

** **