is the way we lived: you tying the laces

on each school day, gripping the shoulders

of your bike lest it move off alone and leave you

you on your hunkers by the kitchen fire

performing surgery on the hoover

difficult and slack-heavy as a teenager

your notebook copper-plated with the whole

Our Father, suppliers of discontinued kitchen parts

and our impossibly distant addresses

then the last of the picnics, Travels with a Donkey,

the sweet years turning over and over

and you falling asleep as I read.

From Prince Rupert's Drop Carcanet (Oxford Poets) £6.95

The Poetry Book Society recommends

If you enjoy the poetry of Jane Draycott why not try Soulsby Moniza Alvi, Crossing the Outskirts by Julian Turner and Snow Water by Michael Longley.