The other two parts are here and here
The Return (Mam's Story)
Walking home with shopping done,
treads the old familiar route.
The cold wind bites, clouds hide the sun
as she hurries past The Institute.
She barely notices the trash
blowing up and down the street -
the local council, starved of cash,
just like her can't make ends meet.
She scarcely thought about her boys;
the sons to whom she once gave birth
the pain obscuring all the joys
of eighty years upon this earth.
The loneliness of all those years
she shuts her eyes and thinks of Bill
then unbidden come the tears
the flood that breaks her iron will.
As she crossed the quiet road
towards her tidy terraced house
She thought it was a little odd
that car - familiar, yet - the force
that hit her when she recognised
its number plate and the man
who from the seat began to rise
to welcome her with "Hello mam".
And as he took her by the hand
she suddenly felt very old;
what was it that he had planned?
"Let's get inside, out of the cold"
She makes some tea as he reviews
the photos on the mantelpiece
two boys in shiny school shoes
with dad, who looked so ill at ease.
At the kitchen table, sipping tea,
she sat as words came pouring out,
the regrets, mistakes, his apologies
- it was sincere, there was no doubt
All she could say, when he was done -
it hurt though it was surely true -
was "Go home David, go home son,
There's nowt here any more for you"
Tim Fellows 2018
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