A late one from yesterday for my nephew.
Sometimes
You play life like chess
Thinking twenty moves ahead
If this then that.
If the worst, then the other.
I see your eyes widen
At a potential risk
In some unchosen future.
You told me once
That people had clouds around them
And when a stranger’s cloud touched yours
You’d get more and more stressed
Until they went away.
We were walking to the shop
And every step
Made you more anxious.
At last you explained
What seemed so obvious to you.
The woman in the shop
Would know you,
Wonder where your parents were.
And seeing you with me
Assume I’d kidnapped you
Call the police.
And then I’d be arrested
And it would be your fault.
Because you knew the woman in the shop
But she did not know me
The mixing of the clouds around us
You predicted would end in disaster.
I reminded you
How much like your mum
People say I look.
They’ll realise I’m your auntie
It will be alright.
It will be alright.
It will be alright.
Tom Juniper Poetry 