The Parting
He was an old bloke. Not a bloke
looking young for his age, or one
to hide lovers in the village
away from a kitchen wife, or make
up stories down the local pub
to a crowd of mates. He was alone;
you don’t dress in green crimplene
trousers with off-white grubby
shirt for anyone else. His parting
of coarse grey hair was the first thing
that struck me; how it split him
right down the middle: two parts,
symmetrical (half sad, half sad).
I’d a vision of him as a boy,
his mother combing him in two,
expecting he would stay like that.
(previously published in Rialto 71)
Hilda Sheehan is a mother of 5 children and has been a psychiatric nurse and Montessori teacher. She is editor of Domestic Cherry magazine and also works for Swindon Artswords (Literature Development) and the Swindon Festival of Poetry.
One thought on “‘The Parting’ by Hilda Sheehan”