Now Blossoms the Magnolia (I.P.)

Despite the night-time frosts, I cup its flowers –
flushed, like the cheeks of a child

between my hands, and it bears its blooms,
so very nobly...Reminds me of you

and how I long for you to visit...you said
you might, if you recall.

I promise you I wouldn’t keep you; not
for more than just a minute.

Then, there was that moment at dawn, I thought
it was you...your head on the pillow

right next to mine, but it was only a dream...
a trick of the light, maybe;

a fleeting shadow of a passing cloud.
Except we both saw you – your dad and me.

Spring bustled in too early this year
and already the herbs I’ve planted have taken...

coriander, rosemary and parsley, and he’s out
planting seeds in his allotment as I write

and the lemon-tree’s flagging, but your old
wooden-bench we’ve painted a shade of green

and he’s stencilled the back with two mallards.
Remember Ashley and, ‘No ducks here’?

We’ve a rabbit, which lives just beneath
the doughnut bush, and I wish you could see it...

Come springing back to life, like the narcissi
at the edge of the pond; their heads bib and bob

with the breeze, for it is your name they speak,
with pouted lips and bated breath.