Alison Cassidy - Full Steam Ahead - For Jerry

Like Puffing Billy
under full steam,
you chuff and chug
your way into the shower.

At high speed
you shed your clothes,
revealing battle marks of recent surgery
that join those now long faded,
when bottles, bikes
and boxing gloves
made their indelible stamp.

You stand under the water,
cursing, when the new control refuses to obey -
‘What’s the matter with this stupid thing? ”
and lather your body
compulsively,
belligerently,
as if soap and water
might somehow wash away
the helplessness you hate so hard.

I scrub your back
‘Yes please…’
and wash your pretty feet.
The steam fogs up my glasses.

Your skin is smooth as soap,
your buttocks, freckle-cheeked
(and sexy still at seventy eight) .

I notice your fresh clothes
(old habits never die)
laid out in regimental order
on the bed -
shoes carefully polished,
socks folded just the way mum used to.

I help you dress, trim your mo’
and comb your hair.
Your good hand squeezes me cheekily on the bum
‘My poor little girl.
Fancy being stuck with an old cripple.’


Oh my darling, you don't know the half of it...

Alison Cassidy

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/full-steam-ahead-for-jerry/