memory

Aren’t you happy mum?

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Nineteen ninety five. We did not know it was the last VE Day that mum would see. There was a party in the street. Mum was indoors crying.

Aren’t you happy mum? We won. That’s why we’re celebrating. We won, we won and you were there. It’s party time.

Don’t celebrate for me. It was not “fun”. A day of sad relief perhaps. It took my cousin, my uncle, your grandad for six years, his health for the rest of his life and what should have been my youth.

Twenty five years on and I see the celebrations on tv and remember mum and the others and I wonder.

The secret of the longlasted love

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The secret of the longlasted love is known
in its fiery potential
by the young and the breathless and sweet

I could warn you of its future
but perhaps
you would not believe me

The secret of the longlasted love is known
in the mid age
in the touch and go and stay

I could write you a letter or some lines
but perhaps
you would not want to read me

The secret of the longlasted love is known
only to the old
when the memories and razored caresses have scarred

I could tell you the history of it
but perhaps
you would remember
how everything was different

Father’s Day 2019

/ simonsalento / 1 Comment

You smiled quietly when we gave you a card, cleared your throat and said thanks. We found them all you know, when we were clearing the loft, all in date order (you’d pencilled the date on each envelope), held together with a rubber band, wrapped in plastic and sellotaped down. I’m not sure why we all wrote this one.