This is from Drifting Sands Issue 24. If you use the link you can view me in situ by scrolling down to Simon Wilson, or look on page 53. I’m fairly sure I haven’t posted this one before, though as we have noted, my memory is not all it used to be.
Young and old . . . and gone
Saturday afternoon. We are having a garage clear out. Two kid’s bicycles, sports kit and a
child-sized tent are piled on the ground. Garden tools, not used for years, are lined up against
the house—the leaf blower with the intermittent electrical fault, a long-handled wire brush for
weeding the gaps between paving slabs, a tool with three hooked tines . . .
Distant shouts drift from a cricket match, an Amazon driver delivers something across the
road, and magpies roam the gutters, searching for water. If they find any they scoop at it
eagerly and hold back their heads to drink. The sunshine brings out the iridescent blues and
greens in the black plumage, and lights up the falling water droplets. I decide that tea would
be a good idea. My wife sits on a camping stool and I balance on the chair with the loose leg as
we sip the hot brew. We find a box of cassette tapes. They seemed so modern at the time. She
picks out one by Ian Dury and asks if I remember that night in Sheffield. Looking at the
growing pile we wonder why we needed it, and why we kept it all this time.
the garden harvest
tomato juice runs down
my chin
The pictures come from May 2020 and were selected at random. I really should be more sensitive and use photos that match the poem.
I enjoyed reading some of the other works surrounding yours. I don’t want to make you big headed so I won’t make comparative comments.
Thank you. I am still feeling big-headed . . .
Rightly.
🙂 Thank you.
We often think the same here! That is a beautiful poem, Simon.
Thank you/
Laurie got there first with so evocative, so I’ll add of such an afternoon
Thank you Derrick.
So evocative! I think most of us ask ourselves the same question.
“Why did I keep all that junk?” One of life’s eternal mysteries. 😉
Yes!
🙂
The same could be said about the contents of my head. 🙂