Finding Beauty

As she watched the Robin look through her window
She was sure it was smiling
It might even be looking at her.
Upstairs her mother lay,
Motionless - gone now,
Soon she would have to telephone someone,
And tell the world,
But until then, she would just watch the smiling bird.

The light of his universe came into the room,
His granddaughter smiled and everything was right with the world,
She sat on his knee, and he kissed her on the top of her beautiful smelling head,
‘What is the longest word you know, Granddad?’
He wanted to say ‘Alzheimer’s’ - while he could still remember,
But instead he kissed her head once more,
And held her tighter.

She handed him a sandwich made with love and tomatoes,
Through the train window,
And he noticed that behind his mother, was a stranger helping up a woman
Who had tripped,
The man wiped her blooded knee with his handkerchief,
Then he smiled,
And the son realized that those were the things he was going off to fight for.

bobby stevenson 2017
painting: Pascal Campion.