A Family
Family –
It isn’t always easy, is it?
Maybe affection becomes somewhere lost
Under lego-strewn bedroom floors
And below a parental nag
Maybe care for each other sits haphazardly
Between stools of rivalry and raised voice expectation
So I ask you
To imagine
Like a DO-NOT-PRESS klaxoned button hovering just below your eyes
A muting of this annoyance
Where the brushed-teeth repetition of routine
Could be the naked bathroom glare of loneliness
Where the five-minutes-more bedtime tango
Might be the frozen emptiness of unfamiliar bedsheets in unfamiliar houses
Where the tug-of-war battle of sibling possession
Is the half-slumber panic of reaching for your sister
When she is county distances away
And so, I ask you to imagine
In the face of a devastation both irreversible and unwanted
The tunnels-end light of hope that could appear in an outstretched hand
An opened door
A familiar Good Night endearment
Picture the paths of encouragement that open for a fostered child
Who needs help
But expects nothing.
Family –
It’s not always simple, is it?
But in its numerous guises and unlimited forms
It’s always important
And always deserved.
© By Emily Rose Galvin, Staffordshire Poet Laureate