Liminal
Before he died, he saw
his parents more and more,
not that it bothered him,
he said, there was nothing
untoward going on:
they didn’t gesture him
to follow nor loom at his bed
in the care home; they went
about their ordinary lives,
his mum at the kitchen table,
cutting up bread for toast
or pouring tea from the pot;
his dad, shaving at the sink
before he went off to work,
whistling through his teeth
as he walked down the path
or calling See you later on
as the gate clanged shut.
Sharon Phillips started writing poems when she retired from her career in education. Since then, her work has appeared in print and online journals and anthologies, including Places of Poetry, Poetry Birmingham, Raceme, About Larkin, We’re All In It Together, The Poetry Society Newsletter and previously in Ink, Sweat & Tears