Poetry on Sunday

We conclude our series in which the Llansteffan-based poet Mel Perry explores family and place in poems from her collection ‘Mineral Wealth.’

Double Helix

I have a photo of you and your husband

cradling your daughter.  You sit, he stoops

to brush his hand over the baby’s head.

I sit, cradling my granddaughter.

I feel your arm curve over my shoulder,

nestle mine in yours.

Your hand hovers above us

and we touch finger pad to fingernail

of this new child.

I cwtch my grandchild in my arms

look over her head to my daughter,

see you flicker, a shadow beyond the hearth.

Did your mother hold your daughter

as my mother held my daughter

as I now hold my granddaughter?

As you could never hold me.

Double Helix

September is a time of significant anniversaries in this story. As I write on 6th September 2024 it is the 128th anniversary of my grandmother, Phene’s, birth. Next week will be the tenth anniversary of my mother’s final fall and stroke, taking her into hospital, where she died ten weeks later.  I have been working on Mineral Wealth, a creative response to the stories of my maternal grandparents, for almost three years and had thought that the final piece might be about Phene’s mysterious death.  However, September offers a new and joyful anniversary for our family as a granddaughter, born in 2023, approaches her first birthday. Her birth offers a new perspective.