Still Waters

Just as I do now!

It is as familiar to me as the
lines deep etched into my face – that turn of
the stair, that curious way the wood was
rough sawn, cutting into the skirting – just
as I have always known it, exactly
as it has always been when as a small
child, slowly, tentatively with many
unsteady steps, I climbed those same stairs
... just as I do now!

There are times when I still call out  ‘Alice,’
as if she’ll come skipping down, as when young.
Times there were, when feeling unwell I would
stay warm in my bed, wrapped up tight and snug
‘You stay in bed, keep warm, we’ll have you right
in no time.’ Mum said, kissing cheek, eyes, hair.
Soon well enough she brings warm milk and
Marmite toast on a small wooden tray
and sitting with me reads those childish rhymes
that would amuse me when still very young
... just as they do now!

The ghosts of long dead voices linger still
but fade with faces to amorphous forms.
The house the same, but smaller, much smaller
than my distant memory still recalls.
I still see and feel my small childhood self,
on those stairs, playing in that small back room,
now empty and dank, the kids playroom then
where sometimes I would sit and weep, letting
my childhood emotions flow freely forth
... just as I do now!