Dusty Red Poem by Louisa Rogers

This was written as a task for my english class at school. We had to write a poem based on a picture of one of our parents and the story behind it (if it was known) . This is based on a picture of my mother on her 21st birthday in her costume for the fancy dress party - she was dressed as a ringmaster. My father took the picture and was dressed as a lion.
Here it is:


I see big white feathers with red tips.
It matches your red jacket and your bright red lips.
An engagement ring, I see on your hand.
The lion who gave it to you? Before you he stands.

After everyone’s pictures are taken,
people meet and greet and hands are shaken.
The music turns on and the party starts.
For 6 hours it lasts, before people part.

That was 12 years before my earliest memory
of you. In baggy trousers you stood - next to that
fragile tree - getting out our passes, so we could
enter the magical world of Disneyland Paris.

I think now, we are closer than ever, though somehow I feel that instead of your simplicity that shone on your 21st, you have become more like the complex, dusty coloured flower patterns of the curtains and sofas that stood behind you and you are becoming, somewhat harder to figure out.

Written 21-03-10