Family Plot

My father feeding the seagulls (2011)

Family Plot

I

I noticed him late last year
as I climbed the back
stairs at work

a beetle
spindly legs upflung
on the first flight down

among the dustbunnies
and detritus
of a busy office

in a while he was joined
by a tiny dead
centipede

now every morning
I say hello
and pass the time of day

illimitable spans of air
above him
his ship of eternity

lofty as the sky

 
II

PETER
d. 1976

SASHA
d. 18.3.86

MISHA
d. 23-2-90

PETYA
LOVED AND
HANDSOME

NIKITA
MUCH LOVED
d. 30.9.93

MITYA
BOLD & BEAUTIFUL
d. 5.4.94

POUPOUSSE
OUR LOVELY FRIEND
d. 31.10.05

written on our back fence

 
III

At North Shore Memorial Park
on Schnapper Rock Rd

in Central Div
Bronze 6

Block B
Row H

Plot 17
beside Grandma’s grave

my sister’s ashes
have been joined

by my father’s wooden
urn

we haven’t yet
ordered made

the little plaque
wishing him

quiet sleep
and a sweet dream

when the long trick’s over

(26/6-12/8/15)

 
John Masefield: Sea Fever (1902)

•


Or Changing World: 2018 Lecture Series