Mum and Dad, I owe it to you: A poem 

(A dedication to Mum and Dad…on Dad’s birthday, Mother’s Day)  

Sometimes, the patterns of the sky 

become you, talk to you 

like a history coming back 

from where you thought it was lost 

A soft pleasurable hand 

patting your head, your cheeks, your back 

as if you were an infant 

And the warmth of September 

comes in a flood of earthlight 

when the flower of life opens out to you  

It may not have been a perfect birth 

You could have died; frailly premature 

The doctors wrote you off 

Mum and Dad had the grit and determination 

to give you the strength to survive 

your first battle 

to take you on the right side of the cordon 

between life and death 

That strength gave you the strength  

to survive… the fiercest battles of a lifetime