Who's The Daddy?

Painting

A question mark hangs over the baby
or, to be precise, over the father.
The baby is the baby
but is the father the father?

The mother is, unquestionably, the mother
but cannot, herself, be precise
with regard to the father. She stands,
well back, arms folded, almost in shadow.

The man/the father? is leaning over
the cot seemingly unaware of
the question mark suspended above him
and at which the baby is pointing.

If I picture their future I see
doubts, accusations, spilt milk, cries punctuating
but that probably says as much about me
as it does about this imaginary painting.



What Do I Know?

Rather than say hello
my best friend's dad
always greeted me with
'Now then, what do you know?'

I was tempted to tell him...

1. That the ancient Greeks built the Parthenon
2. That eight eights are sixty-four
3. That Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island
4. That Henry VIII's third wife was Jane Seymour
5. That the world's highest mountain is Mount Everest
6. That not wearing seatbelts is against the law
7. That Canberra is the capital of Australia
8. That the Three Wise Men are Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior
9. That spiders have eight legs
10. That the Tyrannosaurus Rex was the largest carnivorous dinosaur

...but I didn't.

I said what
he wanted to hear,
my usual answer:
'Not a lot.'


Poems copyright Bernard Young