Philosophy for life
Guilty dad
Feeling bad
Leaving son
To party ‘fun’
Two hours later
The flushed victor
Allays my cares
He’s only the winner of musical chairs.
Kids eh. There’s always more to them than meets the eye. Much like particle physics, if you’re there to observe them you become quantum entangled and affect what they do. Left to his own devices in a roomful of strangers, the boy done just fine.
Making bread
It must be said
Is harder work
Than I had read:
Measure it,
Mix it,
Knead it,
Leave it,
Prod it,
Roll it,
Bake it,
Proclaim it,
In exchange:
Burnt my mouth
Straight from the oven
But silenced the kids
In quiet consumption.
Before:
Washing bowls
Scraping dough
And scouring flour
For a good half hour.
Hard labour the staff of life.
Up at five
Checking her stocking,
Held on till seven
Before she comes knocking.
“How many days to Christmas?”
Her sleepy brother asks
Today IS Christmas,
Let’s get unwrapping!
Christmas wrapping
Reveals
Star Wars toys,
To small boy’s joy.
R2D2 warps time.
That was me too
Thirty five years ago.
School Christmas carols
Parents wedged in
Younger siblings
Making a din
Silence falls
Like a blanket of snow
Then many small voices
Sing tunes we all know
All upstanding
The grow-ups join in
All in good voice
The joy of a hymn
Our spirits all lifted
By seasonal cheer
The annual sing song
Gets better each year.
The annual Christmas carol service, at my daughter’s new school, is a step up from the childish plays of recent years.
Opened with an expert trumpet solo, studded with eloquent readings and conducted with vim and vigour throughout, this was a classy – and very traditional – Christmas performance.
She, smartly dressed in red shirt and blue skirt, never spotted us – lost in the crowd. But I could see her, through gaps in many heads, singing her little heart out. It lifted mine as I stood to sing too. You can’t beat a proper Christmas hymn.
Achilles & Aristotle 