Lift

‘I carried my mother as she carried me.’
—John Campbell, ‘My Mother’

Not quite. Your funeral mass now over,
undertakers paired off the family lifts;
your three sons the main pallbearers
(I with my brother, the tallest one).

Each side of you we awkwardly manoeuvre—
six foot and five six. Comedy’s dark gifts—
even now I didn’t take my fair shares.

Rather, I mimicked carrying your coffin,
as sons and grandsons took the greater part
I half-stumbled (how’s that for metaphor?)
buckled through shame, the faintest heart.

Guilt and cowardice can underscore grief;
I felt the undertaker tap my shoulder,
signalling my duty done. I felt relief.

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Patrick Ramsey was born in 1962 but was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He co-founded a small literary publishing house, Lagan Press. Over twenty years published around two titles. As a younger poet he appeared in various anthologies including The New Younger Irish Poets, Trio 6 and The Map-Maker’s Colours. He is returning to writing after a thirty-year silence.