Journey of Words

You know about the ice
My falling in
My sister falling in attempting to help
My sister clambering out
Me left, chest deep, in that hole
My finding a way to get out
Out of the freezing water
Finding a way to get a grip on slippery wet clay
Finding a way of escape

You don't know about the bath
My mother taking my Wellington boots
Pouring out the mud and claggy water outside the kitchen door
My mother pulling my jumper over my head
Unpeeling my shirt
From my shivering five year old body
As the bath was running
As foaming bubbles formed
froth on the water
It was too hot
I was too cold
My toes white
My fingers white

The pain of blood returned
Knuckle joint by knuckle joint
To my fingers
To my toes
Condensation steaming up the bathroom window
As my mother sponged the cracking clay from my calves
From my hands and forearms
As I shook and cried
At the throbbing discomfort of warmth
On chilled flesh of legs and arms
My mother crying with relief
Her son alive
Not drowned in some builder's random pit
In the field behind the new family home
Where she had arrived so full of hope

~

CLP 02/04/2026