Dead Good Poets

Gerard Rochford

My Father's Hand

Paper; Silver; Golden

The Dead Good Poets online anthology of poetry by writers from and associated with Aberdeen was published in 2006/2007 with funding from Aberdeen City Council.

For more information about the literary scene in Aberdeen and North-East Scotland please see North East Writers.

My Father's Hand

Gerard Rochford

I like to wear a band around my wrist,
an amulet of copper, links of bling,
a hippy weave of cotton or dried grass.

Reminds me of the change
my father made as I grew up
from toddler to walker. Crossing a road
he stops holding my hand
and wraps his finger and thumb
around my wrist.

My bracelet now is like the brag
of a teenager leaving home
and flashing a cell-phone
where father's number sleeps.

I wear my father's hand around my wrist.

selected by Janice Galloway for her Best Poems of 2006 list for the Scottish Poetry Library

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