My Father

Born in 1925
Tapping away on his ipad
Writing an email to the states
Requesting seeds

A printer by trade
He stayed in the job for 30 years
But he was a traveller
Known to some as the Happy Wonderer

He strayed beyond the article circle
But was hungry as a child
He worked as a lumber jack
But they had no money for his school

He hitchhiked on the back of a log lorry
Crossed a waterfall using his arms
Became a Sargent in the RPC
Collected Pete moss in Sweden

Represented England the YHA in Norway
Cleaned parks in Nancy
Reforestation in germany

In ivalo he travelled on steam train
Stared at like an Alien by Finns
When years before he was an orphan

Worked for the duke
Travelled to Finland
With israeli wrestler

There was no one to tell him to watch out
To take care
To be careful
So he wondered

And yet was stable
His hard work
His honesty rewarded
He saved money

I am a simple man he says
Mail, Guardian. and now
Telegraph he reads
He knows about the worlds corners

And yet there is naïveté
A dreamer
A hoper
And a determination I have never seen

And yet I see it
At times in myself
Is it me
Or is it him, it must be us