Drifting – Sarah Liu

Drifting
 
For weeks I noticed
his eyes flickering,
sometimes watching us
and sometimes gazing
through our faces.
His thoughts drifted
from our apartment to
the little village with
red concrete houses that
spread like moss over the
trough of the mountains.
He remembered the clink of his mother’s
silver anklets as she walked
in bare feet along the dirt roads.
Many years had faded from his memory,
lost in a drifting mind,
but he knew that in a year’s time
the kitchen tap would still be dripping,
the radio still buzzing
and we would still leave at nine
and be back before dinner.
Perhaps he also knew that
his grandson didn’t actually get a job
and the rent went up and
that everyone had
already made plans for after
his passing and nobody told him.
 
.

Sarah Liu
Year 13
Epsom Girls’ Grammar School