AN AFTERNOON STROLL ON THE LAST DAY OF WINTER.

Took a walk to the park,
A short walk,
To the bank park,
Where the slides and swings and see-saw things live,
And other little kiddies skip by,
And although it isn’t far,
It is for my boy,
Who enjoys the journey
Nonetheless,
And makes the best of his time there
Even if he sometimes climbs sideways
Whilst checking out his surroundings,
And doesn’t concentrate enough
On his own stuff
As he’s way too curious.

And when we’d exhausted
All the playground’s possibilities
We decided not to ascend the river bank’s hill
As the serious mist,
That greeted us this morning,
And hadn’t really lifted all day,
Was rolling back in slowly over
The dull disk of the sun,
And we still had to pop along
To the nearest newsagent
To pick up a lottery ticket,
So as dusk begun
We slipped across the road
To head back home
And he still had his chin on his shoulder.