Great bronze bald head mawning
like slow laze lion always tan
from endless village loops delivering letters,
bills and birthday cards, bringing
joy and sorrow in equal measures –
dent in skull from car bonnet bounce
or split on 1960s pavement, I imagine
dry brown grass of past summer
sepia tin can kick, red ants
scurry in n out of fissures
filled with burnt withered roots of weeds –
now not so changed, few wrinkles,
silver bespectacled kindly face
shows rare flashes of anger directed towards dog …

O faux pine TV trays!
O dusty neglected ornaments!
O cracked cold blue concrete kitchen tile!
O babbling crispy skin of lasagna and endless salad!
O winter grey gloom mud damp towel
and radiators reliably tick ticking!
O summer burgundy hot touch
tin briquette barbecue and smell
of dry cuttings on the wind!
O tumble dryer’s sad flaccid extraction tube
hanging into the hedgehog statue tiny pond
suntrap corner garden
always full of juicy never-caught wood pigeons
that look good enough to eat!
O Dad, with chin burrowed deep in chest,
neck brace braced ‘gainst achy afternoon
three pint along sea wall snooze,
Colombo repeats rumbling on
like nostalgic nursery rhymes for retirees!