AN END OF INNOCENCE
What marks it is not her correct usage
on a card, unprompted, of apostrophes,
nor that we can trust her now to cycle
undistracted – even by the ice cream van’s
heralded arrival – around the park,
though intermittently out of our sight
behind mighty limes and conifers,
but, sleeping over one night – her parents
working many, many miles away –
waking, coming down, preoccupied,
confessing oh so reluctantly
to ‘a bad thought’, a terrifying
what if, her parents’ death.
John Huddart
February 8, 2017The end of innocence for grand parents too! Apostrophes, Balancing on a Bike, and Dying. A lot for a day!