by Richard Rose
Richard Rose’s poem is about a promise that a grandfather makes to his grandchildren in these turbulent times.
I promise you
that there will come again a time,
when I will sit you on my knee
and read you all those stories,
which with familiar rhythms and
long-known happy endings, will
help you sleep securely in your beds.
Days will return,
when we will laugh and sing
those silly songs, just as before,
and play the games of chase and catch,
or hide-and-seek around the fields
or in the parks where, in recent times,
we shared such days as now we miss.
The pestilence that blights our lives,
this unseen, stealthy, creeping beast,
too cowardly to show its face, and
thereby comes in deathly silence,
will none the less be overcome
if we can sit the dark days out
and hunker down and bide our time.
Through the woodlands, by the river,
we will walk and breathe the air,
when once again we are together;
then, you will see our time will come
and then we’ll cling to one another
and celebrate our lives made free.
I promise you, I promise you.
Richard Rose is a writer whose fiction, poetry and essays have been published in literary magazines in many countries. His most recent poetry has been published in The Cannon’s Mouth (UK), Kitaab (India) and Better than Starbucks (USA). Further information about Richard’s work can be found at www.richard-rose.net
