Bedtime Stories
I didn’t really like the books
my father read to me at bedtime
those James Herriot vet stories
all hedgerows and country lanes
but I loved the timbre of his voice
like icy water over river stones
and I loved the weight of him beside me
on my bed not my sister's
emanating warmth through those
resonating words falling from his mouth
chapter after chapter
night after night.
Aotearoa |New Zealand based writer, Jane Bloomfield, is the author of the Lily Max middle-grade trilogy. Her poetry and CNF are published in Tarot, Turbine |Kapohau, a fine line - NZ Poetry Society, Roi Fainéant Press, Does It Have Pockets, The Spinoff, Sunday Magazine and elsewhere.