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AFTER LIFE
that-day-by-the-sea
One high English summer day in 1984
we took our daughter, Kate,
to the Dorset coast, the Jurassic Coast.
She was eighteen months young,
my wife was pregnant with our second child
Anna, who will, herself, give birth to her third child soon.
Back we go to this day in late summer 1984
we parked in Westminster road
near Milford-on-sea and I carried
Kate in her carry cot down to the beach —
more or less near the sea
We built sand castles, ate cheese sandwiches.
drank tea from a flask, played games,
at last, packed up,
went home to London
That day-by-the-sea recurs to me
in memory very often
I will think about that
When I’m at my last.
Memories are all we have
feeling happy, feeling sad,
thinking of the distance
that separates us over time
unless, of course, you wanna
get stuck in the eternal present.
And that just aint pleasant.
