Today I’d rather be out with you, Mum,
Laughing over giant lemon meringues at the Ramblers’ Retreat
With you and Brian at the St Pancras champagne bar, or dining in some lovely French chateau.
Instead I bring these crochet flowers to your grave, explain to my Dad
He died far too early for our birthday jaunts.
LM Collis 22.10 2021
I am still four years old, inside,
Skipping round the corner in
My yellow Japanese dress,
Made by my Mum.
Going to market with my Dad.
First day at Townsend, lost, at seven,
Having left my glasses at home.
I am still the twelve- year- old,
Amazed in Bruges to get free chocolates
For speaking French, regardless of mistakes.
I am still that young engineer
Ready to travel the world,
To ride a motorbike, scuba dive and fly a plane.
Whose train set was the Channel Tunnel.
I am the woman who’s had the greatest good fortune
To fall for the kindest man in the world.
A crazy cat woman who’ll have a go
At speaking a dozen languages, because
Always, somewhere, there might be chocolate.
LM Collis 7 Oct 2021
