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| Lot's Wife Pillar, Mt Sodom, Dead Sea, Israel |
Lottie, looking back
Lottie lifts the album
from its dustless shelf,
hugs it close,
places it on the coffee table –
all in quiet tenderness.
It’s not a proper visit
without the family on display.
And ach, how she loved them.
She was happy then,
fresh-cheeked, eyes twinkling –
eyes now with a soft light
as her finger moves slowly
to the children.
‘Ah, wee Callum - cheeky laddie; always the joker.
And Shona, forever making sandcastles –
och, the sand got everywhere.
They loved the beach, eh.’
Seaside holiday snaps,
Christmases, birthdays,
a few anniversary celebrations
in for good measure.
‘Would you look at Billy –
wearing that silly hat one Christmas:
he was always ‘silly Billy’ after that,
but there was no harm in it.’
Lottie strokes the close up face.
‘A good man,
a kind husband,
and a doting dad, that one.’
Always the photographs;
fading, dog-eared memories
of days long gone;
smiles, frozen in time –
a past now only remembered by her.
And so she tells their stories,
while she still remembers:
when she goes
then they’ll all be gone.
‘What’s your name?’
‘It’s Shona.’
A page turns;
me, 40 years younger.
16 year old -
all excitement and puffy sleeves,
dressed up for my very first dance.
‘This is my girl, Shona – such a pretty one.
You’d like her, I think.’
Tears threaten, but I shake them off.
‘Yes, Mum.’
My hand covers hers,
it’s warm, and wrinkled,
and still on the photo album
full of memories,
where her heart and soul,
and mind, now live.
c. Nik 2023
c. Nik 2023