Two poems for Father's Day

(Pulled from deep storage....)

1. Intensive care

there was I,
standing there,
not knowing what to do,
and there were you,
lying down and
fully occupied with death.

I felt a little useless.
it didn’t seem
something I could help with.
not like mowing,
or helping paint the house,
or clearing out the shed.

a one man job,
I guess,
is what you would have said

If you could.


David Kirkby

2. Conversation

my 6 year old daughter asks me,
conversationally,
if she ever met her grandfather.
I explain how he died 
soon after she was born
and far away.
i’ve seen his photo though,
I hear her say, 

and I tell her
how I told him about her,
the day that she was born,
and how he would have loved her,
and she smiles, gives me a hug
then walks outside to play.

David