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.