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Coming Home - Poem

The poem describes a man returning home and the awkward interactions he has with his mother and father, as well as his grandfather pouring wine with an unsteady hand that shakes more each year.

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Ariel
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2K views1 page

Coming Home - Poem

The poem describes a man returning home and the awkward interactions he has with his mother and father, as well as his grandfather pouring wine with an unsteady hand that shakes more each year.

Uploaded by

Ariel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Coming Home

Owen Sheers (1974-)

My mother’s hug is awkward,


As if the space between her open arms
is reserved for a child, not this body of a man.
In the kitchen she kneads the dough,
flipping it and patting before laying in again.
The flour makes her over, dusting
The hairs on her cheek, smoothing out wrinkles.

Dad still goes and soaks himself in the rain.


Up to his elbows in hedge, he works
on a hole that reappears every Winter,
its edges laced with wet wool –
frozen breaths snagged on the blackthorn.
When he comes in again his hair is wild,
and his pockets are filled with filings of hay.

All seated, my grandfather pours the wine.


His unsteady hand makes the neck of the bottle
shiver on the lip of each glass;
it is a tune he plays faster each year.

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