Poems
by Joyce
Walker
Back To School
Mothers with children
Scurrying to the school gate
Pass by my window
Cardiac Arrest
Moments I forget,
No nearer do I get
To piecing all the
Fragments in my mind,
Leaving all the trauma
And the stress behind.
I was gone, but for how long?
Can someone tell me
What went wrong?
I saw my body
While I floated far away
What exactly did they do?
What did they say?
Moments I forget,
But what I can’t forget
Is that I died, yet someone
Brought me back to you.
Cold Paradise
Snowflakes land on earth
Covering over footprints
In a sheet of white.
December Shops
Out Christmas shopping
Buying presents for nieces
Long queue at Argos
Delivery
It came to me by post the other day,
The parcel with handwriting that I knew,
The stamps showed that it came from far away,
I realised it must have come from you.
And though I read my name I didn’t dare
To break the string and tape that held secure
The contents of the package sitting there.
I’d had one come from you like this before.
It didn’t hold a bomb, anthrax or plague,
Although that too, had come from far off land,
I don’t recall if it was from The Hague
Or Egypt, where you’d once sent me some sand.
I steeled myself and tore the box apart
And found you still had power to break my heart.
Fatherhood
What do you want me to say?
I’m over the moon,
Happy for you, for us
You know we didn’t plan
Life to turn out this way.
Now we sit in silence,
Sullen silence
While I make a decision.
Can I live with myself,
If I walk away?
Will I regret it more
If I decide to stay?
I hate my inability
To take responsibility,
But it was only play.
A pretence of love
A bit of fun,
I didn’t expect the, now look
What we’ve done
With which you greeted me.
I can’t, of course, say anything
To you, because I’m trapped,
I guess you feel trapped too,
Abortion is an ugly word
At times like this.
I lean towards you,
Give a reassuring kiss
It’s OK, I say,
I’m over my initial paddy,
It might be fun, to have
Someone call me Daddy.
