Tag: family
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OUT NOW! The Teacher’s Daughter
Today is my dad’s birthday. In 2022 he was diagnosed with mixed dementia and we have been on a rollercoaster ever since. In his working life, he was a teacher, a magistrate, and an advocate for the voiceless. He taught me so much and gave me everything he could, but the greatest thing he ever…
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The Lion’s Share
Camel aside, the straw that broke the lion’s back was not in fact a straw at all, but the utter gall of the Pride arriving after the fall, Her cry was guttural and yet they stalled, But had they been there still – had that been their will – curiosity may not have lured this…
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Rumour Has It
Rumour has it, You have something close to chest, Suppressed, And I’m impressed For somehow you pressed your finger to your lips – Careful not to let your secret slip – As you fed me soothing snippets, Appeasing tidbits, That quicked the nail upon your fingertip, Stripped by the sharpness of a forked tongue, Crisp,…
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The Launch by Reece Malcolm
So I have been writing since I was 7, inspired by my father’s own passion for poetry and his enviable way with words. My older brother’s remarkable love affair with poetry also started at a young age and his career has really taken off this year. You should check him out if you get a…
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First Love
You held my hand when I was young, I looked up and saw more than my father, I saw the first man I would ever love, And the mould for each man thereafter. You showed me the beauty of strength when it’s blended with a gentle core, How to appreciate all that I have, While still pushing…
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Hush Child
Hush child, Close your eyes, Shutter out the world and let the stillness fill your mind. Hush child, Hold my hand, Feel its warmth and strength and know the might it can withstand. Hush child, Take a breath, Let it fill your lungs and feel the lightness lift your chest. Hush child, Lean on me,…
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Little Green Fingers
With heat lapping at my nape and soil beneath my nails, I take a momentary break, to watch you hunt for snails, OK, you shouldn’t be weeding in the shoes I bought last night, But barefoot in the seedlings?! My heart dances at the sight! I love the frown of concentration as you try to…
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My Mother’s Pearls
What goes up must come down, If I am lost I can be found, I must learn to swim or I will drown, Success proceeds a sweaty brow, No difference trumps a common ground, There’s no place like my own home town, My family are forever proud, There’s silver lining every cloud, Tomorrow’s hurt will be…
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A Heart Full of Willow Blossom
I plucked catkins tenderly from a willow, To show how love captured me when you were born, I filled the sea endlessly with blonde billows; No drop unadorned, They broke the banks, wondrously swathing the land, With hundreds of heavenly starbursts of gold, For when you so helplessly searched for my hand, Your hand found…
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Cold Toast
When some things are changed, They are changed for good, Cold toast is not bread, And ash is not wood. When I looked at you, Selfishness ended, All thoughts of me were promptly suspended. When you looked at me, With innocent eyes, I knew I was changed, Completely revised. There’s nothing at all, Not one…
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Pip Talk
Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out? Why dress up in another fruit’s skin? You’re an apple; of that there’s no doubt. Your uniqueness is to be embraced, Differences make this world grand, If all fruits had the very same taste, Life would be terribly bland.…
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The Flyers
The green, The black, The white, The stripes, The thrill of the fight, The delight of the graft, Two halves, And a whole lot of heart, And the laughs, (And the cries), And the cheers, (And the sighs), The battle calls from the sides, The banks burst as passion flies through the field, We never…
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Tricks and Mortar
In the stillness all around there’s not a sound that the silence hasn’t bound The voices have been pounded into the cracks of these surrounds and the echoes of these walls The whispers of these halls – they tell it all – They scream in muted voices the errors in our choices And the legends…
Serena Malcolm 