A summer morning 1956
My father sits white vested baggy trousers
After breakfast cigarette
Sunshine on his face
Glencullen warmth
Fresh air about the place
I a boy lean into his shoulder
Mammy takes the picture of her men
A donkey in the background
Stretching for a bite
Hind leg tied
A calm contented sight
He loved those days
No better place to be
God’s fresh air
Life as it should be
No warring guns
No bloodshed
No coal dust on his tongue
Good food good sleep good Guinness
And the livelong day was long
I leaned into my father
Rare experience
He wasn’t tactile then
Like father so like son
But oh he was my father
I was so proud of that
I lean into him now I do
And he I think leans back
Brian Fahy
22 March 2022
Erris Poetry 