Voices is intended to be a collection of poems written and illustrated
by Mike Burr .
beach
another Facebook Krime
i tagged my son as a lectern
because he lectures and hectors
his childish parent
as the tides of time erode
so each moment in its grain of sand
is turned and lost in foam and sputum
embedded to the bedrock of the moving beach
each individual, its essence
glittering in the waves a second more
rolls off toward some rested quietude
and that is the parable Toby
for when i marked you as a lecture stand
and you rolled about that and the FB notes i made to you
just as my parents would in the temper of their living room
with me .. a child sandwiched between two stones
one young like you
one old like them ..eroded
only now Toby
this is the end of an epoch
nanny and granddad are going to die
nanny is almost there
drugged by the doctors and with auntie teresa's acquiescence
she is not the mum i know and love
but the wild and wise woman
will live on inside me
and granddad.. granddad is like a pierced egg
from which the yolk is slowly dripping
the ebb of hearing and off sight
the withdrawn frailty
creaking like his aged bike
he can cycle better than his teetering walk
and while he still has this freedom
he will live his reckless days
and though his feet are swollen blue
i hope they stay with him
long enough for him
to roll off to some quiet beach
in his deepest sleep
then Toby it will be my turn
i will be the oldest of the burrs
and will you chastise me then
will waves of anger taunt me with their cyclic force
or will they gently roll me with their
"love you dad"
just like they always do