Poem in Fendalton
For Tom, my grandpa
I thought of you walking
through Fendalton
where the well-to-do
peer through suburban dreams
their lawns and driveways
spilling onto the footpaths
and I pictured you inside
the house, Straven Road,
with your daughter
off to another football match.
I carried your thought with me
through Hagley Park
and cast it like a stone
into the summer-rich shadow
showering the Avon
with mid-morning light
and as the ducks
nuzzled the water
I watched you
sink deeper and deeper
from my sight
like the man I never knew.
December 1994
Poem © Mark Pirie 2016