The Two Shadows

Childhood was happy ? adulthood yet more so ?
Teenage had traumas, fleeting and forgotten.
But through the sunshine fell athwart two shadows
Father and Mother.

Sonatas sounded as the evenings lengthened:
Mozart played crisply;  Bach, sweet and gentle;
Sometimes more loudly thundered the piano ?
polonaise passion. 

Radio crackle echoed in the evening ?
Programme on programme ? jazz, singing, voices,
Any old language ? never mind the meaning ?
Tone was what mattered. 

Home was mysterious ? many hidden corners.
Wires round the cornice, piles of dusty papers,
Piled in the hallway tubes for television,
Straw-packed for safety. 

Suddenly, wartime! Then came the changes.
Home was no longer Father or Mother ?
We were in Cornwall, while they were in London;
Bombs started falling. 

Brother and sister set out on life?s pathways:
Beaches, walks, cricket ? days in the schoolroom.
Four years went past us; then the war finished,
Cheerio, Cornwall!
Father died quickly, and then our Mother
Broke down completely. 

Fifty years widowed, her love never faltered.
Fought for her husband, thought of him forever.
As my life closes, two lights shine out brightly,
Father and Mother. 

 Diana Richardson (2004)

 Related to the original Esperanto poem: La du Ombroj