Fathers Day

A face I learned to love so well
Has left me to my grief
It’s hard to see the good in life
When the reaper is a thief

Her green eyes I’ll never see
Her voice I will not hear
Another moment we’ll never share
As long as you aren’t here

My family, they miss you too
The parents and the kin
It’s like they too, can’t replace
That little space within

I remember when we were smaller
When I didn’t know your name
You were close, but not like now
The meanings not the same

My mother introduced us
You did not own a thing
Into our house you would come
With but yourself to bring

As time wore on you would become
Our newest family member
And there you would stay
For as far back as I remember

I know it’s late to realise now
In days when you are gone
Just because you were around
It helped us to be strong

You made up the backdrop
Of my life right up to now
Even when things would change
You’d always be around

In a time when I would change
When our family would part
When I saw, my dad much more
And learned to make my art

When my sister learned to love
And my brother learned to run
My parents still shared a bed
And pokemon were fun

When Dinotopia was real
And our backyard wasn’t small
You were there to be thought of
And you symbolise it all

Easter won’t be the same
And Christmas will be hell
My ears are cheated of your pur
And the ringing of your bell

My mother named you Rosie
After the hue that stained my face
You’d help me get well soon
And charm me with your grace

Dad would insist, strictly water
That milk would make you fat
But if there was a little left
I’d give up coffee for the cat

The weight of her on my lap
Or at the end of someone’s bed
Her claws may have dug in me
But my heart had never bled

My fingers moving through her fur
Running down her spine
Scratching just behind her ears
Her tail would rise and twine

Waiting on the window sill
Bathing in the sun
Or trying to catch a bit of string
That I dangled round for fun

Stalking in the garden
Or rubbing against my leg
Scratching on my door at night
The attention she could beg…

A week ago you could quote me:
“That meow will drive me mad”
But when it came to your voice
It was nearly all I had

I regret so many things in life
Some that can’t be named
But chiefly is that only one
Photo had been framed


It was on the day that hails dads
My dad would find a shirt
Sky blue, in the front yard
Stretched out in the dirt

I was staying in another state
So far away from home
I rang my dad on Father’s day
While he was on his own

“Happy fathers day!” I said
As cheery as I could muster
But the reply he muffled back
Was without that little fluster

Ah I must have woke him up
That’s why his voice is off
He cut of my next remark
With the resounding of a cough

“I’ve got some bad news” he said
But bad news was just a saying…
Maybe my phone bill was high
Was in desperate need of paying

I nearly dropped the mobile phone
When my dad went on to say
“Rosie’s dead”, he’d just said
…the cat had passed away.

At first I thought it a joke
That dad didn’t have the right
But none of us would laugh if she
Had lost her life last night

It’s just like in the movies
Where someone tries to speak
But words don’t form along the way
And the volume is too weak

He said he did not know
The how, the why or when
That if he learnt anything
He would call me back in ten

I heard that when mum found out
She couldn’t hold back the tears
The siblings would find out later
And would affect us all for years

Dad buried her in the front yard
Where she lied in the sun
Under the broken window
I wished both things were undone

A week later marked my return
To see that space of dirt
I forgot how long I stood there
Among the grass, the gloom, the shirt

The shirt belonged to a person
That knew much more than I
I’ll probably never know who
Cloaked our dead with sky

Now the house is empty
The couches feel so vast
The clock still ticks time away
Its hands move too fast

You did what you felt like
You’d eat till you blew up
You search for chicken in the bin
Or drink milk from a cup

You were quiet when in trouble
And loud when you were starved
You’d always reck the furniture
With your territory carved

You were a snobby little thing
You’d just laze around for hours
You complained a lot at dinner
But at least you were ours

Another bird she will not catch
Nor a cold night spent inside
Father’s day will forever be
The day that Rosie died

Its so hard to say goodbye
To me you still exist
Wherever you are, I hope you know
Down here, you will be missed