living room

We passed over the sky by Katherine Shirley

Each year, after Christmas

My parents would take

Each other to task over

The chore of packing up

Everything not nailed down

Into our creaking old VW

And setting out at 3am

On Boxing Day

To avoid the traffic

We drove West for hours

My sister snoring on the

Seat beside me

Much as I preferred her

Not one of nature’s

Easy travellers

But asleep she could pass

For serene, with each

Sodium street-lit flash

Kissing features that appeared

Sepia in the grainy dawn

After the Welcome Break

On the M4

At which we never stopped

Not even to pee

In spite of the signs

Telling drivers to rest

I would gaze at my own

Reflection in the window

Floating in everlasting colour

As the sun started to rise

At our backs

I held my breath

The radio crackled and died

As we entered the stretch

Of pinkish sky

And perfect clouds

That was the magic

Of this annual pilgrimage

To pay our respects

To our grandfather

On the occasion of

His birthday

Not always a fun visit

Gruff Canadian vowels

Growling over Windsor soup

Politics stripped barer

Than the carcass

Of yesterday’s bird

Generational clashes

Building to harsh sighs

Raised voices, clenched fists

Home-made meat pie

And Leftovers Lunch

Heavy cutlery scraping plates

Across the carpet-swaddled

Mahogany table

With its uncomfortable

Striped-cushion chairs

Too little padding

For limbs young and old

Then after pudding

Each year the same

Banoffee cake

With brown, squishy

Bits of banana

Stuck across the top

Instead of icing

While all the family

Tiptoed, grimacing

Around the bald patch

In the carpet

Rubbing uncomfortable elbows

Through the chilly, dusty rooms

Of a neglected house

Half-way up a hillside

In the middle of nowhere

I would sit on his lap

And tell him about it

The way we drove

To visit him

Eyes shining

Through the rosy dawn

And the point where

We passed over the sky

The Milk House logo

 

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(Photo: simpleinsomnia/flickr.com/ CC BY-SA 2.0)

Katherine Shirley
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