NaPoWriMo - 8th poem

April 8th

I seem to be leaving the prompts behind at the moment.  Sometimes they are not up on the sites when I look so I am thinking out my own ones.  However, this next one was inspired by a prompt by The Poetry School to take a random poem and write a response to each line then play and edit.  The most handy poetry book I had at the time was Paul Farley's The Dark Film which I am still working through.  I took his poem Adults and below is the result - the theme is similar but not quite the same.

The Other Side

He was the one I looked up to

but lately I’d heard him late in the night

and watched him from my window, swaying and giggling

sometimes singing, never in tune

and he’d piss over the garden wall.

By day he seemed normal

controlled, holding it together;

I could forget his stumble up the stairs,

the sound of him puking up

because he was my rock and I would be his.

He’d taught me to ride a bike and he’d ruffled my hair

now he cried over some guilt I didn’t understand;

unforgiven he sought consolation in a bottle

but the liquid never satisfied his thirst

and his angry words frightened me.

What could he want to be happy again?

He had me even if mum looked down her nose at him.

I tried hard to make him smile

yet still he came undone in the night,

weeping, shouting; then he’d pass out.