Introducing my second great nephew.FOR HIS GRANDMOTHER
She stands atop a parapet, on an island in the Channel
She looks with stillness to the north
To England and her ancestry.
He swings the video camera wide, zooms in on the tidal mound
And back again to the swishing waters
of the English channel closer to France.
She huddles down in her 'travelling' coat, cheeks touched by a collar
And half closes her eyes to the autumnal winds
That blow from her English ancestry.
He moves the camera round to the land, tight to a bevy of shops
and back again to the figure standing there
of his wife of thirty nine years.
She looks dreamy but cold up on the lookout, older and younger at once
she turns her head to spy him filming
Across the English channel.
He says, off camera, to the side, all at once, muffled
"What are you doing here? For whom do you wait?"
She doesn't even turn as he approaches, camera rolling
and you see her stillness broken.
She says:"I am waiting for a lover to come and take me away".
He chuckles but there is a sadness in the voice.
We women of a certain age, know, that what she says is real
half joking half aching half remembering girlish dreams.
We who have been loyal, faithful to one man for so very long
know that there is a taint of dismissiveness in our men.
We who have born their babies and fed them well
Have memories that at odd times make us ache.
And so to my sister-in-law-newly-made-a-grandmother
This is for you.
I shall not have a grandchild any time soon,
But I know that of which you showed in the video
taken by my brother on the Jersey Islands that day
And I ache along with you.
