Looking at my youth

Looking At My Youth

Eyes closed my mind flying, to days before and days after

Remembering snow falling in April

And still worse “pea soupers” on the way to school

I think of shared TV and stories of home

The sound of dice on a wooden backgammon board

In the summer the taste of halloumi and watermelon

Followed by 1^st days of school filled with fear and loathing

Sharing cigarettes and Jazz wrapped around conversations late into the night

My dad a giant of man wrapping newspaper to his chest to fend off the cold

Striding out into the early morning to catch the 1^st bus

A stranger in a foreign land, it didn’t hold him back

A life forged from bravery and harder times

Gazing at roads blocked to him with no way forward, work is work

Take what you’re given

A foot in two worlds

One in theirs and one in the world I was born into

Never sure where was right