marc owen jones

Patrick & The Bears

Monday         

You look so small I want to cup you in my hands, carry you away from your bed and bathe you gently in the bird bath amongst the dwarf tulips on the east lawn. I feel certain that you have lost your dozen years of growth; evaporated to the weight of a toddler.

The bedding has been changed and the white sheets are so crisp and crease-free that I can barely see your outline.  I lean closer and inhale. I love the smell of fresh linen, hung out to dry in the spring sun, catching the perfume of primroses and violets off the breeze. I stroke the side of your face and start to whisper your favourite bedtime story; a family mythology made real through repetition.

“Before the world was born, the black soul of the Great Bear spread across the universe. Centuries passed; millennia; seconds of infinite time; past, present and future merging into nothingness.

 

Patrick & The Bears (4,966 words) was completed in May 2013.

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