Bara-a-chaws*
The willow flower turns light grey to green to a colour
between light dry sand and gold.
He taught me to pick young hawthorn leaves,
as we walked our way beneath the trees
…
in those long ago days, he called them bread and cheese,
good to settle our empty stomachs’ yearn,
good too to kill a thirst and stop endless words
of a child hungry to know more of the world.
…
The boy wanting to know much more of life,
dragging words out of a silent war veteran,
tallest silent man, who’d seen too much,
and had nothing to say to the child, his son.
…
Hawthorn leaves picked small, tender and brightest green,
baked in flour, a way of surviving the hardest years,
remnants of taking what the land could offer,
to supplement a working man’s food in Spring.
…
Memories handed down from father to son.
- ‘Bara-a-caws’ Welsh for Bread and cheese
©robcullen170819
