Posted in Love

Mother and Child

Posted on by tq1695

Mallory and Irvine
two names forever linked,
like
Rogers and Hammerstein
Gilbert and Sullivan
Lennon and McCartney
David and Bacharach.
Lost on the summit ridge, of
the summit of the world
Everest, 1924
king and country and empire.

I knew about the siting above the second step
the missing five hours
the empty tent
the three days of waiting
the long, requiem march to Darjeeling.

The mourning
large scale and dramatic
services: many
including a memorial at St Pauls
attended by George V and Queen Mary.
but
mass distorted perspective
until I read about Irvine’s mother
every night
for the rest of her life: 26 years
she left outside light on, in case Andrew came home.

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Author:

Most of my life has been spent on the bench, occasionally called into the game by extravagance or attenuation. Waiting has turned a loner into a recorder - nondescript and inconsequential, more not noticed than overlooked - the non-vantage point of children not yet considered old enough to understand. Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry is a lifetime of picking anecdotes up and not throwing them away. Stories collected like odds and ends placed in a box in the basement, the garage, the garden shed - uncertain as to what their use might be but knowing that one day there might be one.