Your father used to put
a folded white handkerchief
in the top pocket
of your jacket
and combed your hair
which he'd plastered
with Brylcream first
and even dampened
your eyebrows
to get them to lay down
with his spittled finger
and took you with him
to the movies
to watch cowboy
or war films
or now and then
those romantic ones
with kissing
and too much talk
which although good
you would avoid
if you could
and he took you
to your granddad and gran
and you sat there
bored out of your brain
watching the goldfish
swim round and round
the glass fish bowl
and him talking
about this or that
and once you recall
at a Friday evening treat
at the movies
he'd run off into
the dark
and you sat
watching the film
until an usherette came
and said
your daddy's had
a choking fit
and he's in the foyer
having a rest in a chair
and so you missed
the end of the film
as she took you off
to see him there.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem