That Generation is GoneDad scraping toast and yelling that I'd miss the bus
Charlie with his cap at a jaunty angle
Mum laughing till she could hardly stand
Winnie on the riverbank watching the boats go by.
Dad with black eyes in a lard-coloured carcass
Charlie succumbing to death like a drowning man
Mum remembering the bluebell wood of long ago
Winnie sucking tea through a straw.
All gone. All gone.
That generation is gone.
All of their dreaming.
All of their words.
All gone.
All gone.
Photo - The lighthouse at Spurn Point.
Nothing makes a person feel lonelier than the loss of their family.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you and your wife Shirley can start to heal from the deaths you've seen, and the losses you've had to encounter.
You are right, YP. For that generation, it was such a different life, but I suppose people will say the same about us one day.
ReplyDeleteTouching reminder of all our mortality there YP.
ReplyDeletea different life, and probably a better one
ReplyDeleteAs my brother-in-law said to Mr. Goddess when dropping us off at the ferry dock after their dad's funeral: "We're all orphans now." Doesn't matter that they're both in the 40s; it does make you feel like suddenly we're the adults.
ReplyDeleteWe are the memories of our kids and grandies now. It's up to us. Let's give 'em wonderful ones!
ReplyDeleteMade me cry. But I liked it.
ReplyDeleteSlightly worrying that we're the grown-ups now.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they're all gone. They're in our heads and minds. They live on that way. For sure. Their dreaming, their words, their deeds. We pass that on to the next generation and so on it goes.
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE... Thanks for your understanding comments that recognise both the inspiration for that poem and its effect and purpose. Hadriana - you were so right to suggest that that generation is by no means gone - they remain behind in our own words and our own dreams for life is a chain linking us to the past and to the future.
ReplyDelete