When I was young and Christmas had a Christ,
On Christmas Eve my Dad would disappear
On a secret mission to the woods, to top
A holly tree and trim some berried twigs.
Come rain or shine he tramped the muddy paths
Through leaf-strewn glades and squelching ditches to
His pre-selected target, fingers crossed
That no-one else had been and taken it.
When mission was accomplished he returned
In triumph, bearing a shapely tree aloft,
With sprigs of holly as minor trophies, all
To be received with squeals of great delight.
The potted tree, placed in the sitting-room,
Was hung with tinsel, mini paper-chains,
A star and silver shreds, and finished off
With candles stood in holders clipped to twigs.
The joy of presents underneath the tree,
The lighting of the candles and the smell
Of burning wax that wafted round the room,
The homely flickering of splintered light.
But now the artificial Christmas tree
Is brought down from the attic, shaken out
And twisted into shape on plastic legs,
To be adorned with costly merchandise,
All lit by sets of electric lights that shine
With automated flash. But where, oh where,
The spontaneity, delight? At close
Of Boxing Day the flickering light goes out.
From Poetry Cornwall No 26 (2009)
Stealing from his mother’s house,
Edward came across a hand-written note
tucked away in a scallop-shell purse, which seemed at first
to be some sort of letter or short story, but here’s what it said:
“As a child, Edward liked to climb trees in the plantation
and make dams in the stream at the foot of the garden,
and once carved a bookmark from a piece of wood.
But right from the very beginning there was an absence in Edward’s life,
a craving emptiness which grew like the black pit of a dilating eye.
Where that void came from neither the teachers nor doctors could say,
except that it was there from the very start,
curled up beside him in his crib, hiding in the grip of his fist,
drinking from the water vapour in his breath.
Nothing could suture that dark, famished wound.
Board games and soft toys, space-hoppers and bikes –
the more it was given the deeper and wider it grew.
All sweetness was rancid on Edward’s tongue.
All handshakes were tentacles, all compliments were veiled threats,
all statements and assessments were worthless confessions
obtained under torture, all care-plans were Byzantine conspiracies of evil intent.
Awake and asleep Edward stalked the battlements alone,
meeting the emissaries of peace with the point of a bayonet,
beading friendship in the crosshairs of suspicion,
scanning the open plane from the watchtower
so as to ride out and beat until dead the first flames of tenderness
or the sparks of love. He is survived by his mother, Eleanor,
from whom he took everything, but who would give it all again
just to let him scream his agonies into her face
or pound his fury into her breast one final time. He left no note.”
Edward opened the wardrobe, which was empty
except for the greatcoat, which slumped towards him
then engulfed him as he hauled it from the rail.
The huge, overburdening coat with its stiff, turf-like cloth,
and the heavy legs of its sleeves, and the triceratops collar
and the mineshaft pockets and the drunken punches of its flailing cuffs.
Through the neat bullet hole in the back, daylight looked distant and pinched,
like the world through a dusty telescope held back-to-front to the eye.
And there Edward wept, crouched in the foxhole,
huddled in a ball under the greatcoat, draped in the flag.
You made handbags out of milk bottle tops
bound in raffia; machined rugs out of rags
and odd balls of wool; sewed cami-knickers
from parachute silk, my first satchel
handkerchiefs from flourbags; cooked up bread poultices
sheepshead brawn; crocheted cuffs and collars;
smocked, pleated, piped; cable and moss stitched.
Cakes though weren’t your forte. You were defter
unspooling golden syrup onto mounds
of bread and marge, doled out slice by slice
or recycling the weekend’s leftovers.
Now, sitting here, turning up trouser legs
apprentice task, I’m aware that even
the names for your skills are exiting Left
out of my head, and the mother tongue,
shop soiled, shop spoiled, we learn to forget.
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