Irene

Irene didn't know he wasn't

her real father

until she needed the birth certificate

for her first job.

Her mother explained as they walked to the mill:

He wasn't my real dad…

but he was a good man.

They left the kids at home

on Saturday nights with three pairs of socks

on the kitchen table, and a note:

‘This pair want washing

and this pair want darning

and this pair want washing and darning.’

They used to call her the Little Mother

she overheard years later

in the queue at the grocers.

She said it felt she was never wanted,

but always needed, and now at 86

she was neither wanted nor needed…

but he was a good man.

9^th XII 2009