My mother was a Poodle,
my dad a Labrador…
My grandfather a Seagull,
his mum an Albatross…
Just how I turned out as I am,
has left me at a loss.
By the Book (sic)
By the Book (sic)
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Tag Archives: Ancestry
My Parents made me what I am today.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged #Albatross, #familytree, #Labradoodle, #Labrador, #Memoir, #poetry. #poem, #Poodle, #Seagull, Ancestry
Ancestree
Ancestors
My ancestors were
agricultural labourers
and fisherfolk.
They tilled the land,
and toiled on the sea,
and their children’s children’s children
helped give birth to me.
And I fell out of my ancestree
“Hi, diddly dee, a Sandford’s life for me.”
“I am a Sandford”
I am a Sandford
not a Landlord
or a TimeLord;
and I can afford
to spread discord
when I say that I am not
a Landlord, TimeLord, Warlord,
or the like.
The census shows my family
as Landfords in one past year,
a lack of handwriting clarity
didn’t make the letters clear;
but I knew
from looking and thinking
that they were mine
and I was theirs,
not Landfords
but Sandfords
adrift back in time
(they weren’t TimeLords either),
and named after a sandy river crossing
I may be,
still, I am a Sandford
(in all probability).
Parting. Sweet. Sorrow.
Parting. Sweet. Sorrow.
On this day
my Nan was born
and my Dad did die;
it’s a strange day
if you look at it
in a certain sort of way.
Looking back,
Is often a sorrowful thing,
when family so familiar
became part of an ongoing unknowing,
joining the ranks of the many,
departing the lives of the few.
I stop and think about them
and how they were – those that I knew.
In the last week
I have been reminded
of an Aunt who was born,
a grandmother too;
and the endings of my dad, and his dad – who I barely knew.
In this modern day
of misuse and mishap,
I give my sad thanks to the reminders of an app.
–//–
@Ancestry
Graeme Sandford 