Mum

Mum - the Night-time 

Fold me up at Night-time and put me into bed  

what are these words? 

they’re yours, You said 

You Didn’t Mind if I kept my light on 

I wrote my thoughts securely on the walls 

You didn’t seem to care at all, You 

said when the Morning Rain came  

Everything washes Away anyway 

I asked you where Away was 

You told me not Here 

not Now 

Another time and another place 

Maybe when you’re Older 

I’ll tell you 

Go to bed you said  

But I was afraid of Night-time 

she spoke too loudly, loomed too large 

I kept the light on and I 

kept writing on the walls 

Mum - the Morning 

Remembering You 

is Remembering the smell of breath in the Morning 

when I Woke Up to tell you about 

my Dreams 

the battles I’d fought and won 

the tyrants I had deceived  

a babble of words: incoherent: 

crusts of the little Truths 

I’d savoured from the Night-time,  

seeded in my brain 

truths which would crumble, and mean nothing to the Day. 

still I’d clutch at them 

sand in my hands, 

which I passed to you like a prophet  

(Tiresias)  

those falling images as they drained away my eyes closed,  

seeing You 

as a depository for 

all my Thoughts (which had fallen off the walls) 

You seeing me 

as an infant awakened from a dream 

I would cry when you Wouldn’t Listen 

You would tell me to drink some water 

and Open my Eyes