Life Story

Six months before he died
My father said, ‘I've had a happy life.
I loved my work, I loved my music,
And I loved my wives.’

At twenty he had come,
Shock–headed, laughing engineer,
To a new town, and from an open window
Heard a woman sing,

Not at first sight, but at first hearing
He fell in love, and two years later
Married the singer. Like robins,
Both of them sang.

At thirty we three children knew him
Simply as ‘Daddy’, bald and benign,
Kindly enough, but centred on our mother
And their music.

At sixty came the second wife.
No beauty and no singer, she
Slim, boyish, garrulous and motherly,
She pleased him just as well.

Working till he was eighty,
Though stouter, and hard of hearing,
At eighty–four, carrying breakfast
To a sick neighbour, laughing he died.