I remember you boys rolling marbles down the gutter
And how you prized them, have beautiful they where when you rolled them on your hands in the sunshine
I remember you climbing fences and falling off walls while I stood by to admire you
We found a well in someone’s allotment covered over mr by tin.
You frightened me with tales of boys vtorturing frogs.
Maybe you were frightened of the prospect of national service.
Sometimes you talked about the Nazis
But you could never have said to anyone that you were afraid.
Before that I remember you climbing up the piano trying to get to the Christmas tree on the top.
You seem so full of energy alive so happy and yet it was not true
Later you developed panic syndrome I could hardly believe it
And then you died with Parkinson’s disease
You were lonely in the nursing home. I hoped when you drowsed that you remembered the marbles and playing rounders in the street
You taught me how to bowl over arm. I wanted to play cricket but it never happened How full of possibility the world seemed, the energy, the joy, the lust for life.
Now just a handful of dust
A brother
How my heart sings 